Love you to bits and pieces: Life with David Helfgott

Here is the real story of Australian pianist David Helfgott, by the person who knows him best.

The acclaimed movie Shine tells David’s extraordinary story from child musical prodigy, through tormenting mental breakdown, to triumphant recovery. This book, written by David’s wife, Gillian, is the equally extraordinary story of their lives since the couple’s fateful meeting in 1983, and David’s own account and analysis of his life prior to that meeting.

The book charts David’s struggles to escape the legacy of his troubled childhood and how, with the help of his wife and friends, he forms a new sense of self without losing his magical quirkiness and childlike sense of wonder. When David achieves his dream of once again performing Rakhmaninov’s Third Concerto in 1995, it is a moment of overwhelming personal affirmation, and the culmination of Gillian’s unswerving belief in his brilliance.

Told with honesty, passion and clarity by the woman who stood beside David during the dramatic years of his comeback, Love You to Bits and Pieces is a genuinely profound and funny portrayal of David’s whimsical personality and his prodigious musical ability.