Peter Lantos – författare

“Deeply moving” - Booktrust“A gripping story of love, courage and triumphover evil” - The Bookseller“Can, and should, be read by an audience ofany age.” - Jewish NewsWINNER: THE UK LITERACY ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARDS 2024:INFORMATION BOOKSHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKSELLER CHILDREN'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THEYEAR 2024A story of survival, of love between mother and son andof enduring hope in the face of unspeakable hardship. An importantread.The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinaryjourney, made by Peter, a boy of five, through war-torn Europein 1944 and 1945.Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travellingthrough Austria and then Germany together.Along the way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one afteranother: sleeping in a tent and then under the sky, discoveringa disused brick factory, catching butterflies in the meadows -and as Peter realises that this adventure is really a nightmare -watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learningmaths from his mother in Belsen.All this is drawn against a background of terror, starvation,infection and, inevitably, death, before Peter and his mother canreturn home.  Author Professor Peter Lantos is a Fellow of the Academyof Medical Sciences and in his previous life was an internationallyrenowned clinical neuroscientist. His memoir, ParallelLines (Arcadia Books, 2006) was translated into Hungarian,German and Italian. Closed Horizon (Arcadia, 2012) was hisfirst novel.Peter was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2020 for'services to Holocaust education and awareness' He is one of the last of the generation of survivorsand this - his first book for children - will serve as a testimonyto his experience.Peter lives in London.  MORE REVIEWS OF THE BOY WHO DIDN'T WANT TO DIE"the book [is] absolutely compelling, partly because it isa true story of extraordinary resilience and survival in unimaginablecircumstances, but also because Lantos' stark recollectionsmake very powerful reading." Gaby Wine, The JewishChronicle

“Deeply moving” - Booktrust“A gripping story of love, courage and triumphover evil” - The Bookseller“Can, and should, be read by an audience ofany age.” - Jewish NewsA story of survival, of love between mother and son andof enduring hope in the face of unspeakable hardship. An importantread. The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinaryjourney, made by Peter, a boy of five, throughwar-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945.Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travellingthrough Austria and then Germany together. Along the way,unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleepingin a tent and then under the sky, discovering a disused brickfactory, catching butterflies in the meadows - and as Peter realisesthat this adventure is really a nightmare -watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learningmaths from his mother in Belsen.All this is drawn against a background of terror, starvation,infection and, inevitably, death, before Peter and his mother canreturn home.  Author Professor Peter Lantos is a Fellow ofthe Academy of Medical Sciences and in his previous life was aninternationally renowned clinical neuroscientist. His memoir, ParallelLines (Arcadia Books, 2006) was translatedinto Hungarian, German and Italian. Closed Horizon (Arcadia,2012) was his first novel.Peter was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2020 for‘services to Holocaust education and awareness’. He is one of the last of the generation of survivors and this– his first book for children – will serve as a testimonyto his experience.Peter lives in London.  MORE REVIEWS OF THE BOY WHO DIDN'T WANT TO DIE"the book [is] absolutely compelling, partly because it isa true story of extraordinary resilience and survival in unimaginablecircumstances, but also because Lantos' stark recollectionsmake very powerful reading." Gaby Wine, The JewishChronicle

"I have read few autobiographies more extraordinary . . . Astonishing" OBSERVER"A classic. I preferred it to Primo Levi's If This is a Man" EDWARD WILSON"A child's clear-eyed journey to hell" ANNE SEBBAThis is a story of a young boy's journey from a sleepy provincial town in Hungary during the Second World War to the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen. After a winter in Bergen-Belsen where his father died, he and his mother were liberated by the Americans outside a small German village, and handed over to the Red Army. They escaped from the Russians, and travelled, hiding on a goods train, through Prague to Budapest. Unlike other books dealing with this period, this is not a Holocaust story, but a child's recollection of a journey full of surprise, excitement, bereavement and terror. Yet this remains a testimony of survival, overcoming obstacles which to adults may seem insurmountable but to a child were just part of an adventure and, ultimately, recovery. After having established a career in the West, the author decided to revisit the stages on his earlier journeys, reliving the past through the perspective of the present. Along the way, ghosts from the past are finally laid to rest by the kindness of new friends.With an introduction by Lisa Appignanesi