If you can put down this book... well, it's not going to happen... Zavistovski... has lived a life so dangerous, thrilling, and unpredictable that he qualifies as a picaresque hero along the lines of Lazarillo de Tormes or Oliver Twist.
— James M. Keller, author, program annotator for the New York Philharmonic, and former staff writer for The New Yorker
Leshek Zavistovski's searing memoir is not just the testament of a young man's survival... it powerfully shows how Leshek transcended the extreme circumstances of his existence... a brilliantly crafted love story to the human spirit (his!).
— Bruce C. McKenna, writer, Band of Brothers; Emmy-Award-winning creator, writer, executive producer, The Pacific
His is a path of tremendous, movie-worthy, epic struggle—interspersed with hilarious episodes throughout. I was agape from the beginning to the end of this book.
— Susan Graham, internationally-renowned opera star
Leshek Zavistovski has led a remarkable life and he writes about it vividly and passionately. His survival should be the stuff of legends.
— Jerry Adler, Senior Editor, Newsweek (retired)
Children & Fish Don't Talk is excellent and polished.
— Connie Martinson, writer, host of syndicated television show Connie Martinson Talks Books
In the winter of 1964, three weeks after defecting and the night after playing a flashy holiday performance with the Rockettes at Radio City, Leshek Zavistovski was handcuffed and faced deportation to a gulag. But his troubles started long before he was a defector, before he was a cellist, and even before he was abandoned as a small child in the harsh Polish countryside in war-torn Europe.
