Elena - the Girl with the Piano

Elena lost her piano in the bombing of Leningrad, but nothing could stop her dream of playing at Carnegie Hall in America. When Father announced they would walk to Germany, straight into the hands of the enemy, she continued to dream. Later, living under brutal conditions in a camp where she was forced to play for her captors, her dream began to slip.How long could she survive the relentless cold, the hunger, the humiliation of begging crumbs for herself and her fellow prisoners?Follow Elena Federovna from the night she leaves her beloved grandparents in the bombed-out basement of their former home in the besieged city and crosses the front lines with her parents into the arms of the enemy. Stay with her through her years in captivity as she learns about love and hate, both from the enemy and her own family, as she struggles to cling to her slowly fading dream. From the author: Inspired by true events. I first heard the story of Elena (who was an opera singer) while at college in the late sixties. Though I lost contact with the real Elena, her story haunted me. Before WWII, she was an ordinary little girl who loved playing the piano at home in Leningrad. In 1943, as people around them died of starvation, her father made a plan, a plan that would endanger them from the moment they tried to cross the front lines.