Summary

In the Prologue, David, a 34-year-old writer of screenplays about mutant superheroes, visited his grandparents. His grandparents were Russian immigrants who previously had been unwilling to talk about their memories, but David persuaded his grandfather to speak. He focused on "one week in 1942, the first week of the year, the week he met [David's] grandmother, made his best friend, and killed two Germans" (5).

In Chapter 1, the point of view changed to that of Lev, David's grandfather, speaking in the first person. The setting was January 1942 in Leningrad, when he was 17 years old. The Germans had come to Russia in June of 1941. By winter, the Russians were starving. Many people even ate their pets.

Lev had refused to leave Leningrad with his mother and sister, who fled to Vyazma for safety. He had wanted to remain in Piter, as he affectionately called his...