The pianist of Yarmouk /
Aeham Ahmad; as told to Sandra Hetzl and Ariel Hauptmeier; translated by Emanuel Bergmann.
- 276 pages : illustrations, maps (black and white) ; 23 cm
First published in Germany as Und die Vögel werden singen by S. Fischer Verlag, 2017. First published in the United States as The pianist from Syria by Atria Books, 2019.
"A man, a piano, a Syrian street under siege . . . One morning on the outskirts of war-torn Damascus, a starving man stumbles through a once familiar street - now just piles of rubble. Everything he once knew has been destroyed by famine and war. In despair he turns to his only comfort and joy, music, and pushes his piano into the street and begins to play. He plays of love and hope, he plays for his family and for his fellow Syrians. He plays even though he knows he could be killed for doing so. As word of his act of defiance spreads around the world, he becomes a beacon of hope and even resistance. Yet he fears for his wife and children, his elderly parents. And he is right to be scared, because the more he plays, the more he and his family are drawn into danger. Finally he is forced to make a terrible choice - between staying and waiting to die, or saving himself, but this would mean abandoning his family . . . " - Copac