I’ve greatly enjoyed following the Costa Book Awards this year. The shortlist announcement at the end of November included recent favourite reads such as the poetry collection “Surge” and the novel “Starling Days”. It’s one of my resolutions this year to read more outside of my comfort zone of novels and with the multiple categories this prize includes it’s a great opportunity to explore other genres. So when the category winners were announced at the beginning of January I decided to read the poetry, biography and children’s books as well as the first novel award winner. I’m so glad I took the time to read them because I think “The Confessions of Frannie Langton” is such an inventive and mesmerising story. I also found the poetry “Flèche” collection to be so absorbing and moving. The only book I didn’t finish was the YA novel “Asha & the Spirit Bird” because I found the plot somewhat clunky (probably because I’m not the right audience for this form of book) though I enjoyed the characters and setting. However, I was completely gripped by the biography “The Volunteer” which recounts the story of a Polish resistance fighter who volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz where he forged an underground army, sabotaged facilities, gathered evidence about Nazi war crimes and spread news of the Holocaust to the Allies.

I was lucky enough to have been invited to the Costa Book Awards ceremony last night. It was a glitzy affair with lots of lovely bookish people. And it was wonderful to see each of the category winners being awarded £5,000 on stage. Trying to judge books from these different categories against each other must be such a challenging task, but selecting an overall winner gives a good chance to celebrate literature across all genres. It was so difficult to guess but I had thought Sara Collins might win the award since a biography “The Cut Out Girl” won last year and several people I talked to felt the same way. However, “The Volunteer” was declared as the Book of the Year and author Jack Fairweather was awarded £30,000. I think this is a great decision. I know many people are hesitant to read more about WWII because it feels like it’s a portion of history which has been well covered. However, this powerful biography proves there are so many more unique and important stories to be told. Since I knew nothing of Witold Pilecki before reading this book it was also a very tense read because I had no idea what his fate would be so I was gripped till the end. It’s also poignant that this book won the prize this week because on Monday it was the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I hope this award will encourage many other readers to pick up this tremendous biography.

Although it feels like events of the Holocaust and WWII have been comprehensively written about in numerous accounts, it’s astounding that new stories continue to emerge which present a different angle on this complex history. Virtually unknown accounts of heroism and tragic defeat continue to emerge and this new biographical account of Polish officer Witold Pilecki is one of the most shocking and heart breaking I’ve ever read. After Poland was occupied and Auschwitz (a former Polish army barracks) was turned into a German prisoner of war camp, Pilecki and other Polish nationalists devised campaigns to resist their invaders and take back their country. One of the things they needed most was information to convey to what would become the Allied countries to convince them to take action and strike against the Nazis. In order to gather proof about war crimes and form a resistance army from the inside, Pileck volunteered to be captured by the Nazis and taken into Auschwitz. Of course, this was long before anyone knew that it would turn into a death camp responsible for over 1.1 million deaths.

Something Fairweather emphasizes frequently in his book is that Pileck was a fairly ordinary man who made such a daring sacrifice out of strong nationalist convictions rather any particular ideological or humanitarian feeling. Yet he boldly faced a magnitude of challenges and outrageous brutality. Witnessing this led him to put himself at dire personal risk time and time again in the hope of ending this horrendous suffering. Unbelievably, many of his reports which were miraculously smuggled out of the camps and made themselves into the hands of Western officials went unheeded. This was primarily because it was viewed as too strategically difficult to try to liberate the inhabitants of Auschwitz. Also some officials questioned the legitimacy of the reports. There was also a hesitancy about prioritizing such action because of anti-Semitic sentiments. Even when it became obvious to Pileck that no help was coming and that any insurrection from within the camps would most likely fail, he raly resistance amongst the downtrodden inmates of the camp and attempt to communicate the truth of what was happening to nations that could fight the Nazis. The author notes that “Witold’s story demonstrates the courage needed to distinguish new evils from old, to name injustice and to implicate ourselves in the plight of others”.

It's very effective how Fairweather balances accounts of Pilecki's personal journey alongside a comprehensive overview of the history of WWII and how Auschwitz evolved into a site of such barbaric horror. Part of what made this book so compelling was the tension of finding out what happened to Pilecki. That his valour has largely been unsung in the history books is part of the tragedy of his life story. I'm grateful that “The Volunteer” has given me a broader understanding of the complicated progression of the war as well as an incredible account of one man's astounding courage.