The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die By Peter Lantos

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, such as catching butterflies in the meadows. As Peter realises that this adventure is really a nightmare, he watches bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna and learns maths from his mother in Belsen.

All this is drawn against a background of terror, starvation, infection, and inevitable death, before Peter and his mother can return home.