Nextbook Podcast: David Benioff, Author of “City of Thieves”
May 20th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
This week’s episode of the Nextbook podcast is called “Partners in Crime” (listen in here). Sara Ivry interviews David Benioff about his new book City of Thieves, which focuses on 1941 Leningrad, bombed by the Nazis. According to the Nextbook site, the book
follows two Russians—a Jewish teenager and a young Soviet soldier—both imprisoned for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. When a high ranking member of Stalin’s secret police summons them to his chamber, they’re issued a challenge: procure a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding or face execution. Many trials and tribulations follow.
I thought one of Benioff’s points was really interesting. He has a lot of experience with script writing (Troy and The Kite Runner), and he said he found after having to write a book that there had always been a “lazy shorthand” to script writing. To describe a scene, all he had to do was use a word or two, and it would be up to the designer to interpret the setting. In a book, that job fell solely on his shoulders. I’d never thought about script-writing that way, but I am hardly surprised that Ivry solicited such a revealing discussion; she is an excellent interviewer.