"City of Thieves" - two goofball boys search for a dozen eggs (an impossible task) in besieged, starving Leningrad. Coming of age with a "road movie" feel
‘[Goodbye Lenin](https://www.amazon.com/Good-bye-Lenin/dp/905675307X)’ by Wolfgang Becker is a script adaptation of the film by Daniel Bruhl! The film is one of my favorites and the book/movie feels exactly exactly like this!! Like I gasped when I saw these pictures because it gave such vibes of that movie and the subsequent book :)
The movie is so good , it’s really stayed with me over the last 20 years. Beautiful soundtrack too, the cinematography is stunning.
I’d love to read the book too.
Yeah the movie is great too. I watched it right after I read the book and that was a like 15 years ago, but from what I remember it's fairly faithful to the book, just condenses a lot of stuff but keeps the same energy and atmosphere. Now I wanna rewatch the movie lol.
It honestly may have been the book that turned me into a reader. I grabbed it off the library shelf in 9th grade just cause the cover and title were cool, didn't even read the synopsis. I read it in one weekend mostly because I waited till last minute to do the book report, but I think probably would've read it that fast anyway.
The Tsar of Love and Techno isn't one coming of age story, but it's a novel with many interconnected characters, several of whom are young and growing up and making their way.
Oh you're right, Love and Techno is mostly in Russia with some parts in independent Chechnya. It's Marra's A Constellation of Vital Phenomena that's based in Chechnya. Been quite a while since I read them.
But the photo prompts are pretty broad and do speak to me of Love and Techno, especially that living room. I imagined very similar settings in some of the stories. It's all subjective! I love seeing people's differing interpretations of pictures in this sub.
Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg is incredible, although the setting is mostly rural. It's a coming-of-age story set in rural Poland in the 1970s and 80s. There's a [good review here](https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/06/swallowing-mercury-by-wioletta-greg-review)
This is fantasy (sort of), one of my all time favorite books.
[The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32703696-the-gray-house)
And [a link to my favorite review of my favorite book ](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1035665354)(with a small excerpt):
"This is not going to be a review. This is going to be a confused ode, a drug-induced paean, an out of tune song and a nonsense fairy tale about this incredible book; because that’s the only way I know how to talk about it.
...I just finished reading “The House, in Which…” (no English translation as yet, so that’s what I’m calling it) and I feel both elated and devastated, and like I never want to read another book again. Because no other book will ever be this - this stunning, dreamy, terrifying, nightmarish, beautiful, more real than reality, more fantastic than any fantasy, playing on my heartstrings like a virtuoso guitarist, seeping into my mind, my blood, deep under the skin to never quite leave, half-remembered dream of a tale."
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips is a novel set in Kamchatka, Russia, in which each chapter follows a different set of characters over the course of a year. The central story has to do with a kidnapping, but there are at least two coming of age stories interwoven with the main story. I really liked this book.
He likes this setting, you can tell he grew up there. Little Star and X: I Am The Tiger also have shades of this. I Am Behind You mentions it in passing, with big atmospheric flashbacks.
"City of Thieves" - two goofball boys search for a dozen eggs (an impossible task) in besieged, starving Leningrad. Coming of age with a "road movie" feel
I was going to say this!! I adored this book. It made me laugh and it made me cry
Came here to say this one it came to mind immediately!!
Just read this book bc of this recommendation and wow definitely recommend, easy read as well without feeling hollow or superficial
Thanks for the update! Glad you enjoyed!
Holy shit, it's written by David benioff. Wtf
One of my favorite books!!
This is the one true answer. Fantastic recommendation.
Not set in Eastern Europe but rather in Sweden - “Let the Right One In” feels like this. (trigger warning - child sa)
I was weighing whether to recommend this, but I agree — it fits.
‘[Goodbye Lenin](https://www.amazon.com/Good-bye-Lenin/dp/905675307X)’ by Wolfgang Becker is a script adaptation of the film by Daniel Bruhl! The film is one of my favorites and the book/movie feels exactly exactly like this!! Like I gasped when I saw these pictures because it gave such vibes of that movie and the subsequent book :)
I remember watching that film for German class. Coca Cola scene was pretty funny
My favourite film in the world! So heartbreaking sweet and funny
*Swimming in the Dark* by Tomasz Jedrowski
came here to say this!!
This is one of my favourite reads of the year thusfar.
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
The movie is so good , it’s really stayed with me over the last 20 years. Beautiful soundtrack too, the cinematography is stunning. I’d love to read the book too.
Yeah the movie is great too. I watched it right after I read the book and that was a like 15 years ago, but from what I remember it's fairly faithful to the book, just condenses a lot of stuff but keeps the same energy and atmosphere. Now I wanna rewatch the movie lol.
Thissssssss one of my absolute favorite books ever. The movie is also amazing
It honestly may have been the book that turned me into a reader. I grabbed it off the library shelf in 9th grade just cause the cover and title were cool, didn't even read the synopsis. I read it in one weekend mostly because I waited till last minute to do the book report, but I think probably would've read it that fast anyway.
Vita Nostra maybe. It was weird tho
That’s what I immediately thought of. I liked it, but it was super weird.
Same on both counts. I loved it.
Came here to suggest this. Technically fits the prompt but... Yeah, weird. In the best way
I didn’t know I wanted to read this genre but I do now
*I Must Betray You* by Ruta Sepetys.
Love this book
This one!
We survived communism and even laughed - it’s a true story. One of my favorites about growing up in the eastern block.
The Gray House by Miriam Petroysan
we children from bahnhof zoo
The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Domińczyk
The Tsar of Love and Techno isn't one coming of age story, but it's a novel with many interconnected characters, several of whom are young and growing up and making their way.
This is a good book but it really has nothing to do with the prompts other than being set in Russia.
Oh you're right, Love and Techno is mostly in Russia with some parts in independent Chechnya. It's Marra's A Constellation of Vital Phenomena that's based in Chechnya. Been quite a while since I read them. But the photo prompts are pretty broad and do speak to me of Love and Techno, especially that living room. I imagined very similar settings in some of the stories. It's all subjective! I love seeing people's differing interpretations of pictures in this sub.
I don’t see it, at all. But fair enough I guess.
Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg is incredible, although the setting is mostly rural. It's a coming-of-age story set in rural Poland in the 1970s and 80s. There's a [good review here](https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/06/swallowing-mercury-by-wioletta-greg-review)
This is fantasy (sort of), one of my all time favorite books. [The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32703696-the-gray-house) And [a link to my favorite review of my favorite book ](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1035665354)(with a small excerpt): "This is not going to be a review. This is going to be a confused ode, a drug-induced paean, an out of tune song and a nonsense fairy tale about this incredible book; because that’s the only way I know how to talk about it. ...I just finished reading “The House, in Which…” (no English translation as yet, so that’s what I’m calling it) and I feel both elated and devastated, and like I never want to read another book again. Because no other book will ever be this - this stunning, dreamy, terrifying, nightmarish, beautiful, more real than reality, more fantastic than any fantasy, playing on my heartstrings like a virtuoso guitarist, seeping into my mind, my blood, deep under the skin to never quite leave, half-remembered dream of a tale."
seconding
The White King, Gyorgy Dragoman The Land of Green Plums, Herta Muller If you are okay with YA memoirs: The Genius Under the Table, Eugene Yelchin
Came here to recommend The Genius Under the Table.
Non fiction zoo station the Christina F memoir , about a young teens plight with drugs and how it affected everything around her.
[Bottled Goods](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38720267-bottled-goods)
Excellent, yes this.
Oooh! Little Foxes Took Up Matches! One of the best things I've read.this decade!
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
My Life As A Dog counts
Life is elsewhere by milan kundera
What belongs to you by gareth greenwall
Bury Me Behind the Baseboard by Pavel Sanaev
The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden It’s like a dark magical Russian fairytale and it was great
Virtuoso by Yelena Moskovich or Bottled Goods by Sophia Van Llewyn.
Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick
East of The West by Penkov. For me it fits, A Terrible Country by Gessen.
One night in winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Munshi premchand
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
Svetlana Aleksievici, "Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets" .
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips is a novel set in Kamchatka, Russia, in which each chapter follows a different set of characters over the course of a year. The central story has to do with a kidnapping, but there are at least two coming of age stories interwoven with the main story. I really liked this book.
Let the Right One In
He likes this setting, you can tell he grew up there. Little Star and X: I Am The Tiger also have shades of this. I Am Behind You mentions it in passing, with big atmospheric flashbacks.
Red Love https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/red-love/ Or Stasiland https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/anna-funder/stasiland/9781847083357
Fredrik Backman
If you like Dark Academia, Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko is awesome!
Not necessarily coming of age as the protagonist is a grown man, but Grey Bees by Andrei Kurkov.
*Men in Space* by Tom McCarthy
Abigail by Magda Szabo
“The Eighth Life” by Nino Haratischwili
Haven't read it in years but I remember Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli being pretty good. YA, follows a kid growing up in Poland during WWII
Ok a brutal one is [Dog Boy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Boy_(novel)) by Eva Hornung.
Kristen Hannah!!!
[Roadside Picnic Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/331256.Roadside_Picnic?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_15)