82 pages • 2 hours read
David BenioffCity of Thieves
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 22-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
As they wake the next morning, Lev is disappointed that Vika is no longer lying close to him. They file out of the shed on Nazi orders, before someone discovers a dead body—Markov’s denouncer was murdered during the night by one of the other prisoners. Kolya pacifies the Nazi guard, saying, “I told him the peasants hate the Jews even more than your people do” (309), but he realizes he has risked his safety by revealing himself as an educated man who speaks German.
After a meager breakfast, the prisoners are on the road again, marching south with their captors, the Gebirgsjäger company. It is now Wednesday: Lev and Kolya have one day left to find eggs for the colonel. They discuss the likelihood of Vika being responsible for the death of Markov’s denouncer, and Kolya explains her talents as a killer: “She’s NKVD. They have agents in every partisan cell” (312).
When a German convoy passes and Vika recognizes Abendroth, she readies herself to shoot, but Kolya has a better idea. Using his incredible charm, he persuades the Nazis to agree to a bet, in which the talented Lev will play chess with Abendroth. Certain death awaits if Lev loses the game, but if he wins they will be given their freedom—and a dozen eggs.
Chapter 23 Summary
Lev, Kolya, and Vika are taken to the dreaded Abendroth for the chess game. Abendroth correctly guesses that Vika is a girl, Lev is a Jew, and all three of them are really literate. Nonetheless, he is quite impressed that they managed to fool the other Nazi officers. Abendroth is intrigued by the motivation behind the bet, particularly the request for a dozen eggs; Kolya convinces him that they are simply desperate for a decent meal. Abendroth admits that he cannot free a soldier and a Jew but agrees that he will free Vika if Lev wins.
A box of eggs is placed on the table and the game begins. Abendroth is a good player, but Lev eventually approaches the winning move. As Abendroth congratulates him, Lev pulls his knife but struggles to remove it from his boot; the delay actually saves their lives as the other officers rush in to help Abendroth, leaving Kolya and Vika unguarded. After a tense, violent struggle, Lev sinks his knife into Abendroth’s chest before doing the same to another officer who is attacking Kolya. Lev, Kolya, and Vika grab the precious box of eggs and jump out the window, running into the pitch-dark woods before the rest of the officers can find them.
Chapter 24 Summary
Lev, Kolya, and Vika run through the woods without looking back, gradually realizing that they have escaped their captors. Lev is delighted that he was finally able to act, and both Kolya and Vika acknowledge that he saved their lives.
As they slow to a walking pace, Lev tells Vika about their mission for the colonel and all the things he has experienced in the last few days. She admits that she is working for the NKVD. When Lev tells her that they took his father away, she says that it was most likely his fellow writers who denounced him—the NKVD were simply doing their job. As Leningrad appears in the far distance, Lev is devastated to learn that Vika is not coming with them; she will join another group of partisans near Chudovo. She kisses him goodbye, asks his surname, and tells him she will track him down.
Chapters 22-24 Analysis
The enamored Lev is not deterred by the possibility that Vika may be with the NKVD, and Vika’s flirtatious behavior during the morning march gives the first indication that his feelings may be returned. Nonetheless, he comments on the strange surrealism of the last few days as he veers between horrific near-death experiences and flirtatious games: “I could not handle the morning’s peaks and valleys. One moment I thought I had a few minutes left to live; the next a sniper from Archangel was flirting with me” (319).
Despite Lev’s surreal experiences, the most incredulous moment of all comes when Kolya charms the Nazis and arranges a game of chess with Abendroth. Chapter 23, in which the game takes place, is the novel’s crucial turning point, both in terms of plot and Lev’s coming-of-age. They finally obtain the precious eggs that will buy their freedom, and Lev, the frightened teenager who has spent the whole week berating himself for his weaknesses and cowardice, saves himself and his friends by killing Abendroth and another officer. There is a suggestion that his—as yet unrequited—love for Vika has strengthened him and fueled his actions. Though he comments during the chess game, “I didn’t believe I was capable of murdering [Abendroth]” (343), a few minutes later he realizes that his “fear of Vika’s death overpowered all my other fears” (345).
In Chapter 24, as Lev, Kolya, and Vika run through the woods, Lev reflects on his actions. High on adrenalin, he is elated: “I had acted, against all expectation, against my own history of cowardice” (352)—though he will for many years be haunted by the faces of the men he killed. The excitement spawned by his actions and the dozen eggs tucked inside Kolya’s coat contrasts with the devastation Lev feels a few hours later when Vika says goodbye. Once again, his emotions swing from a peak to a valley as he dejectedly reveals, “I was convinced that the sniper from Archangel was the only girl I would ever love” (356).
