City of Thieves by David Benioff

Sometimes an "epic journey" takes place over just a few miles and in only a couple days. Especially in 1942 St. Petersburg, Russia, when war rages around you.

Two young men are given a reprieve from prison to perform a special errand for the colonel; it's an impossible mission, but failure means death. The unlikely pair sets out to try, and a friendship grows as the duo experience all the worst that wartime Piter has to offer.

This book takes a grim look at a painful war, but a delicate hand with the relationships that form in a time of distress.