Krakow has inspired a substantial body of writing, and readers who arrive with the right books will find the city considerably more layered than it first appears.
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally (published in the US as Schindler's List) is the obvious starting point — not Spielberg's film but the source novel, which is more granular and less sentimental than the adaptation and gives a sharper sense of what Krakow looked like under occupation. Keneally based it on interviews with Schindler's workers and extensive documentary research.
The Krakow Ghetto Pharmacy by Tadeusz Pankiewicz is a first-person account by the Polish pharmacist who chose to remain inside the ghetto walls throughout its existence. Short, direct, and devastating — one of the clearest eyewitness accounts of what the occupation meant at street level.
Unquiet by Marcin Wicha is a recent Polish memoir about the author's mother's death and his family's Jewish roots in Poland — quieter and more personal than a historical account, but very good at conveying what it means to carry this history as a Pole.
The Piano (in Polish, Pianistka) by Wislawa Szymborska — better known through her poetry, but Krakow's Nobel laureate in Literature wrote with a wry directness that illuminates the character of the city's intellectual life. Her poetry collection View with a Grain of Sand is the accessible introduction.
Borderland by Anna Bikont — a journalism investigation into the 1941 massacre of Jews by their Polish neighbours in Jedwabne. Not Krakow-specific but essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the complexity of Polish-Jewish history.