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The Pianist

The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945

By Wladyslaw Szpilman

(46)

| Paperback | 9780312311353

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Book Description

Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times, The Pianist is now a major motion picture directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody (Son of Sam). The Pianist won the Cannes Film Festival’s most prestigious prize—the Palme d’Or.Continue

Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times, The Pianist is now a major motion picture directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody (Son of Sam). The Pianist won the Cannes Film Festival’s most prestigious prize—the Palme d’Or.

On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside—so loudly that he couldn’t hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air.

Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.

4 Reviews

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  • The Pianist is an amazing book! I read it at school some years ago and then we also saw the movie. The movie is faithful to the book, but i think that reading the pianist you can get messages that in the movie are not so evident. After reading this book, anybody would hate nazism and have sympathy f ... (continue)

    The Pianist is an amazing book! I read it at school some years ago and then we also saw the movie. The movie is faithful to the book, but i think that reading the pianist you can get messages that in the movie are not so evident. After reading this book, anybody would hate nazism and have sympathy for Jews .

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    Ilarietta93 said on Apr 12, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • Compulsory reading

    Shocking and traumatic, this text reminds us of the trauma and catastrophe that was the Jewish experience in central Europe before, during and after the Second World War. Close to Primo Levi's texts for the value of a personal view, perhaps the most desperately sad thing about reading this book is t ... (continue)

    Shocking and traumatic, this text reminds us of the trauma and catastrophe that was the Jewish experience in central Europe before, during and after the Second World War. Close to Primo Levi's texts for the value of a personal view, perhaps the most desperately sad thing about reading this book is that we're reminded nothing really has changed. Genocides continue, whole cultures face the threat of extinction, and the dark side of our human nature seems resistant to all attempts at promoting any kind of universal filiality.

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    Ian Hodgson said on Apr 2, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • sad story

    It is a sad story. I can not look at Germans the same way as before. It is also surprising human`s capability to cast cruelty to other people as long as they can find the justifiable cause. There are three highlights of this story: 1. the death of his family, 2. how he helped with the undergroun ... (continue)

    It is a sad story. I can not look at Germans the same way as before. It is also surprising human`s capability to cast cruelty to other people as long as they can find the justifiable cause. There are three highlights of this story: 1. the death of his family, 2. how he helped with the underground to fight back the Germans 3. his encounter of the emery and how his emery saved him near the end of the war. I think this book can be more moving if the writer can be more expressive. Unfortunately, it is not, it is only cold facts and his recalls of what happens during the war.

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    Mangafish said on Feb 23, 2009 | Add your feedback

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9780312311353 Paperback $13.00 $11.70 bn.com
$13.00 -- The Book Depository
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