By the age of six, a spunky little girl named Zhanna, the daughter of a candy-maker from a tiny seaside village in the Ukraine, has already developed the repertoire of a student twice her age, given her first public performance, and been offered scholarships to the most prestigious conservatories in the Soviet Union, the same which had produced legends like Sergei Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz.But in 1941, disaster strikes. The German army is smashing through the Ukraine en route to Moscow. Zhanna and her family are to be executed alongside thousands of other Jews in the ravines of Drobitsky Yar. A few short miles from certain death, she escapes into the forest with only the clothes along her back and a copy of Fantasy Impromptu in her pocket, her father's words echoing in her ears, "I don't care what you do, just live!"Adopting a new identity and ever fearful of recognition, Zhanna roams the ravaged countryside. One lonely evening a local piano tuner hears her play and brings her to a Nazi commander, who is so taken with her exquisite talent that she soon becomes the performing darling of the Nazi forces, entertaining soldiers and officers with renditions of Chopin, Brahms, and Schubert, all to the cry of "Noch einmal!"The cruel irony of her situation was never lost on the young girl, and yet her father's parting admonition to survive carried her through, culminating in a very different performance in 1946 when she performed for the survivors of Dachau and the American soldiers who had liberated them. A nocturne on the strength of the human spirit, Zhanna's story is powerful, haunting, and unforgettable. Read Less