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Rating: Besieged Stalingrad, World War II. There are two boys, one arrested for theft and the other a brilliant boy, deserter of the Red Army. Both risk being put up against the wall but are unexpectedly spared and given a suicide mission: to find the elusive chicken eggs to make a cake. To do this, they must cross the German lines and try in every way to survive and find the longed-for bird.
This book is something more than a historical novel set in wartime. Reading it, it's easy to feel the cold and tense atmosphere of those days, and its weight. But these things have already been narrated and described, even better, in hundreds of books and movies on the subject. It's one of the two boys, Kolja, who overturns the perspective of the story. With the demeanor of a somewhat cheeky classmate trying to woo the most beautiful girl in school, he drags us through the city's ruins in this desperate search. And immediately, we too become victims of his rebellious charm, we too want to challenge fate to steal the eggs from the damned "crucchi" or to live a night of passion in the arms of a lover, to remind ourselves that we are still alive.
Light reading for a vacation break.
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