One of the top two or three places I'd like to see before I die are the Hermitage Museum and the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It's been a dream for a long time.
I'd also like to see the museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida but it's a little more obtainable goal.
I'm just finishing up a book about Saint Petersburg by David Benioff called "City of Thieves." It's one of those books I'd never have thought to read. But my book club chose it. I like it when somebody assigns me a good book.
It takes place in Saint Petersburg during World War II. Possibly the most horrific time and place in modern history. From 1941 to 1944 the Germans starved, bombed and besieged the people in this city. And the Russian officials didn't treat their own people any better.
Thousands starved or froze to death. Many people became cannibals.
With this backdrop the "City of Thieves" presents us with two young men, one 17 and one 20, who are sent on a mission.
A Russian officials' daughter is getting married. His wife wants to bake a wedding cake. She's hoarded all of the ingredients except eggs. These young men are told to bring back one dozen eggs within two weeks. Or be killed.
Along the way they encounter cannibals who try to eat them, pitiful young girls being used as prostitutes in a Nazi"comfort station" in the woods, fierce freedom fighters and are finally captured behind the enemy line.
Early on they think they've found an old man who secretly keeps chickens in his apartment only to discover his frozen body and only a little child left hugging the last chicken. They're elated for a while, hoping the chicken can lay 12 eggs in the required time, only to be told that their hen is a rooster.
The book is savage, scary, blood thirsty, true to history and also sweet and funny.
In one of the final segments, the boys have been captured by Germans in the woods. But the officer in charge plays chess and hasn't had a decent opponent in a long time. The 17 year old offers to play with the officer. If the officer wins the boys will still be shot but they'll get what they've requested for their last supper.
A dozen eggs.
Can't wait to finish the book in the morning to see how this turns out.
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