The Pianist

This is the story of Władysław Szpilman, a Polish pianist who spent the Second World War trying to stay alive in Warsaw. He ends up trapped in the ghetto, then hiding in the empty, ruined city. The book follows what he went through day by day, and how music and a few quiet acts of help kept him going.

He describes events as he saw them, and that matter-of-fact tone makes the book harder to put down, not easier. A lot of his survival came down to timing and help from people he barely knew.