Frank Carlson Library

"Before becoming one of the greatest violinists of all time, Itzhak Perlman was simply a boy who loved music. Raised by a poor immigrant family in a tiny Tel Aviv apartment, baby Itzhak was transformed by the sounds from his family's kitchen radio--graceful classical symphonies, lively klezmer tunes, and soulful cantorial chants. The rich melodies and vibrant rhythms spoke to him like magic, filling his mind with vivid rainbows of color. After begging...

Her own identity was safely disguised. But what about those she loved most. They would soon disappear with all the others unless... .

A Jewish pianist's real-life account of survival in World War II Warsaw. Separated in a mêlée, he fights to rejoin his family as they board the death train, but police block him. "Papa!" he cries. The father waves, "as if I were setting out into life and he was already greeting me from beyond the grave."

Shakespeare's classic paradigm finds contemporaneity. Instead of Romeo and Juliet in Renaissance Verona, we find Robert and Rachel in mid-20th Century Europe, ensnared by the tumult of World War II. A Catholic opera singer and Jewish violin virtuoso dream of performing together at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York City, but the German invasion of Poland tears them apart.