The Good Doctor of Warsaw

Elisabeth Gifford

The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford

In The Good Doctor of Warsaw, Elisabeth Gifford tells the true story of two students, Misha and Sophia, who live in the Warsaw ghetto under Nazi occupation. Misha's mentor is the historical author and humanitarian Dr Janusz Korczak, who struggles to protect and feed the 200 children in the orphanage he runs. The two young people do what they can to help.

Misha and Sophia are torn apart by the war, suffering privation and constant fear. Dr Korczak, meanwhile, becomes a symbol of hope in the ghetto, where half a million Jewish Poles struggle to retain their lives and their humanity.

Dr Korczak was a brilliant man and a persuasive advocate for the rights of children. His story has been fictionalised recently in Jim Shepard's 2015 masterpiece, The Book of Aron. But this is a story be told and retold, and Gifford's version is readable and extremely powerful.

Corvus, 386pp