The Devil Comes to Orekhovo

When the Nines Roll Over & Other Stories by David Benioff

For those of you who have waning attention spans and have trouble finishing an entire book before you start the next one, this collection of short stories might be perfect for you. David Benioff wrote The City of Thieves, which was incredible, and he didn’t fail to impress me with these short stories.

It is a collection of eight people and snippets of their transformations and some of the character-changing events in their lives. Not only do you get to know each character better than you might like, you almost feel every stage of agony, every humiliation, rebellion, and desire that each experiences. A single moment of clarity or sadness is illuminated by humorous flip sides with political undertones. And every story has a twist that you don’t quite see coming. Benioff is honestly a storytelling force. I breezed through this 223-page book in 2 days, unable to put it down or even take it out of my bag.

Just to give you a sneak peak, I’m including a snippet of one story so you can get a taste of his writing and what you might expect if you run across it in the near future.

“Every time I look out my window I see the city where you live, and I wonder where you are, and what you’re doing, hidden behind the stacks of tall buildings. Nothing so mundane as laundry or grocery s hopping – no, the laws of bad reality don’t apply to you, you give birth to dead fathers.

Somewhere in the city Leonard exists, haunting the mind of another blessed suitor. I’m in mourning for a man who never was, that’s true, but I still expect to meet Leonard one day, playing dice in the back room of a sawdust bar, a crude mermaid tattooed on his forearm, a battered copy of Moby Dick in the pocket of his leather jacket. I’ll buy him a glass of whiskey and listen to his stories.”

Grade: A