The Good Doctor of Warsaw

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

'You do not leave a sick child alone to face the dark and you do not leave a child at a time like this.'

Deeply in love and about to marry, students Misha and Sophia flee a Warsaw under Nazi occupation for a chance at freedom. Forced to return to the Warsaw ghetto, they help Misha's mentor, Dr Korczak, care for the two hundred children in his orphanage. As Korczak struggles to uphold the rights of even the smallest child in the face of unimaginable conditions, he becomes a beacon of hope for the thousands who live behind the walls.

As the noose tightens around the ghetto Misha and Sophia are torn from one another, forcing them to face their worst fears alone. They can only hope to find each other again one day...

Meanwhile, refusing to leave the children unprotected, Korczak must confront a terrible darkness.

Half a million people lived in the Warsaw ghetto. Less than one percent survived to tell their story. This novel is based on the true accounts of Misha and Sophia, and on the life of one of Poland's greatest men, Dr Janusz Korczak.

Reviews

Powerful, harrowing and ultimately uplifting. Elisabeth Gifford has achieved an extraordinary blend of fact and fiction. * Andrew Taylor *
With powerful themes of loss, hope and what it means to be human, The Good Doctor of Warsaw is a brave, moving and important book with a message we need now as much as ever. * Katherine Clements *
A story that should be told and retold, and Gifford's version is readable and extremely powerful. * Antonia Senior, The Times *
Written with quiet, almost heroic, determination, Elisabeth Gifford's novel fictionalises these events... The end is inevitable. It is painful to read about such wickedness and suffering. * Daily Mail *
I could scarcely put it down... vivid, chilling but utterly inspiring. -- Christopher Booker * Telegraph *
Enjoyment is something of a nebulous term applied to a book of this nature but for want of a better word I did enjoy this book and I'm humbled to be educated about Dr. Korczak from a book written in such an easy, accessible style. * Nudge.com *
A moving, skilfully written historical novel * Bookseller, Editor's Choice *

Author Bio

Elisabeth Gifford grew up in a vicarage in the industrial Midlands. She studied French literature and world religions at Leeds University. She has written articles for The Times and the Independent and has a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford OUDCE and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College. She is married with three children and lives in Kingston upon Thames.