The Pianist. A Scandalous Novel by the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature

We are used to perceiving love and music as salvation, a way to escape from a cruel and cold world into a realm of dreams, into warm embraces. The story of pianist Erika Kohut shows how deceptive an illusion this... escape attempt can be. Music empties, takes all strength, giving nothing in return and destroying hopes for a successful career. The hopes of a harsh mother, who provided not support and approval but only suffocating, unhealthy care. The passion for a young man weighs heavily, destroys, and, deprived of emotional closeness, takes on perverse forms. "The Pianist" is an unvarnished tale of female loneliness, of the attempt to break free from the chains of monotony and unlove.