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Excellent read, morally obligatory. Points of interest:

1. The recent publication date, due to the absence of mnoral-nationalistic simplification. Not only can a Nazi officer be capable of saving the lives of the oppressed, there are good and bad people on all sides, which (obviously) doesn’t mean they exist in identical proportions. Interesting how bad people are and how it takes us to accept these facts in specific cases.
2. The Nazi officer is the one who talks about religious morality. He blames the decline of Germany embodied in Nazi thuggishness and sadism on the collapse of Western Christianity. There’s nothing in this book about the Jewish religion, the values of Władysław Szpilman are those of a cultured liberal. A Communist friend of his provides optimistic morale-boosting analysis of the war, and his ideas turn out to be correct.
3. Can’t wait to see the movie, which Professor Geras recommends (also why I read this book).