Lovely Green Eyes

'Lustig shows us that in language exists the power that often eludes us in life, the power to record, to accuse, to confess and most important, to renew and transcend' Mark Bautz, Washington Times

This is a major work of fiction... Czech-born Arnost Lustig, an Auschwitz survivor, writes about the Holocaust with such merciless clarity that at times one is ashamed to be human

Lustig has a wonderful talent for setting down the details of human misery and survival... He has faith in a soul that transcends the body...if I were a schoolteacher, I would teach this vivid picture of human evil as moral philosophy... A remarkable achievement

Lustig survived Auschwitz. Every fibre of his latest book...resonates with the pain, questions and scars of the Holocaust

Lustig writes about the Holocaust experience with a modest authority that is virtually unique... His genius lies in his ability to understate themes and situations which cry out for melodramatic treatment

Wholly unsentimental and clean of self-pity, Lustig returns in his novels and stories to the harrowing landscape of his youth, discovering within its brutal boundaries the grim but still achingly recognizable panoply of a last, vast, various neighbourhood of man

Fifteen-year-old Hanka Kaudersová has ginger hair and clear, green eyes. When her family is deported to Auschwitz, her mother, father and younger brother are sent to the gas chamber. By a twist of fate, Hanka is faced with a simple alternative: follow her family, or work in an SS brothel behind the eastern front. She chooses to live, her Aryan looks allowing her to disguise the fact that she is Jewish. As the German army retreats from the Russian front, Hanka battles cold, hunger, fear and shame, sustained by her hatred for the men she entertains, her friendship with the mysterious Estelle, and her fierce, burning desire for life. 
 
Lovely Green Eyes explores the compromises and sacrifices that an individual may make in order to survive, the way a woman can retain her identity in the face of appalling trauma, and the value of human life itself. This is a remarkable novel, which soars beyond nightmare, leaving the reader with a transcendent sense of hope.

Arnost Lustig

Ewald Osers

The power of his words lies in their very lack of melodrama... beautiful prose

This wonderful book follows the shifting moralities of people caught in a hopeless situation

It is September 1944; the war is going badly for the Germans, and they are in a hurry to complete their 'final solution'. Compromises are being made on all sides, conditions are unspeakable, rumours are rife, but nothing definite is known of the Nazis' intentions. 
 
On the outskirts of a concentration camp in northern Bohemia three people - two eighteen-year-old men and a desperately lost young woman, Leah - are thrown together, sharing their precarious existence in an attic room. While the world disintegrates around them their relationships are charged with passion, their days filled with erotic and spiritual attraction. Caught in the web of their relationships, their futures are uncertain and any choices they have left to make will be made in the face of almost certain death...

Waiting For Leah

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

Penguin Shop: 15% off with code PENGUINXMAS2025

White Nights

Little Black Classics Box Set

Penguin Modern Box Set

Frankenstein

Arnost Lustig

Praise for Waiting For Leah

The power of his words lies in their very lack of melodrama... beautiful prose

This wonderful book follows the shifting moralities of people caught in a hopeless situation

Books by Arnost Lustig

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter