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 15-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary
The girls tell Lev and Kolya that the German officers usually arrive around midnight. Lev wants to escape before then and head back to the city, but Kolya is determined that they should lie in wait and attack the enemy. Lev is terrified but reluctantly goes along with Kolya’s plan. While they wait, Kolya once again displays his usual cheerfulness and preoccupation with sex, and Lev wonders if he is brave or simply stupid.
Six German officers arrive earlier than expected, but before Lev and Kolya can attack, the sound of rifles is heard outside. The Germans try to escape but all six are shot dead. The rifles belong to a group of Russian partisans, whose leader is named Korsakov, and Kolya has to prove that he and Lev are not German by shooting each of the officers in the head. One is still partially alive, and Kolya proves his status as a Russian by finishing him off. Nonetheless, there is still tension between him and Korsakov.
As the partisans come closer, Lev and Kolya realize that one of them is a girl, whom Korsakov introduces as Vika. They are taken aback to discover that it is Vika who shot the Germans from 400 meters. Kolya notices that Lev is attracted to Vika; his good-humored comments on it break the tension, as Korsakov jokes: “Best of luck to you boy. Just remember, she can shoot your eyes out from half a kilometer” (222).
Chapter 16 Summary
Lev, Kolya, and the partisans go back inside for food and rest. Lev is besotted with Vika, though he admits, “She was no man’s idea of a pin-up girl” (224). He berates himself for his lack of sexual experience but overcomes his shyness enough to make conversation with her. She is interested in his German knife but shows no signs of being interested in Lev.
The temporary respite comes to an end when Kolya announces that they will be leaving soon. Together with Vika and the other partisans, they will journey to the Einsatz headquarters in Novoye Koshkino to hunt out Abendroth, a notorious officer who was responsible for Zoya’s death.
Chapters 15-16 Analysis
As they wait for the Germans to arrive, Lev experiences the deepest fears he has ever known, along with a profound sadness that Kolya is “the only one left who knew how frightened I was, the only one who knew I was still alive and that I might die tonight” (205). Lev continues to engage in internal dialogue and contemplation about his own nature and his understanding of what it means to be a hero, torturing himself because he doubts his bravery, and wishing that he could switch off his thoughts instead of being “plagued by babble on the brain” (215). He also begins to question Kolya’s gung-ho mentality: “Perhaps a hero is someone who doesn’t register his own vulnerability. Is it courage, then, if you’re too daft to know you’re mortal?” (215).
This section also sees Lev’s first meeting with Vika. He is instantly attracted to her, despite her tomboy appearance and behavior: “That one’s more boy than girl” (222). Vika’s language is crude, and she talks in detail about weapons and killing—but she also shows a compassionate side when she defends Galina against the taunts of the other partisans. Lev, despite his shyness and inexperience, shows determination in his attempts to get to know Vika, and we see him coming out of his shell, though he still falters and torments himself.
