Author Description

"Within weeks of Germany's invasion of Poland, the brutal realities of occupation rob Zosia Lewandowska of the man she loves. As ghetto walls rise and the occupiers tighten their grip on the city of Krakâow, Zosia meets Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a pharmacist who dares to operate a pharmacy in the heart of Krakâow's ghetto. Determined to help, no matter the cost, Zosia joins Tadeusz and his staff as they risk their lives to aid the Jewish people trapped by Nazi oppression. Hania Silberman's carefree girlhood is shattered as her family is forced into the ghetto. Struggling to survive in a world hemmed in by walls and rife with cruelty and despair, she reunites with her former neighbor, Zosia, who now passes through the ghetto gates each day to work at the Pharmacy Under the Eagle. But as deportations winnow the ghetto's population and snatch those she holds dear, Hania's resiliency is tested in impossible ways. Zosia and Hania's lives intertwine as they face the griefs and fears thrust upon them by war. Until one day, they are forced to make a desperate choice... one that will inexorably bind them together, even as they are torn apart. A testament to the durability of friendship and the courage that calls the ordinary to resist, Within These Walls of Sorrow illuminates the powerful true story of a group of unsung heroes who fought for hope and humanity in the most harrowing of times"--