SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKSELLER CHILDREN'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A
story of survival, of love between mother and son and of enduring hope in the
face of unspeakable hardship. An important read. The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die
describes an extraordinary journey, made by Peter, a boy of five, through
war-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945. Peter and his parents set out from a small
Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together. Along the
way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleeping in a
tent and then under the sky, discovering a 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, learning
maths from his mother in Belsen. All this is drawn against a background of
terror, starvation, infection and, inevitably, death, before Peter and his
mother can return home. Author Professor Peter Lantos is a Fellow of the Academy
of Medical Sciences and in his previous life was an internationally renowned
clinical neuroscientist. His memoir, Parallel Lines (Arcadia Books, 2006) was
translated into 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
testimony to his experience.