Reflections of Prague is the story of how a Czech Jewish familybecome embroiled in the most tragic and tumultuous episodes of thetwentieth century. Through their eyes we see the history oftheir beloved Prague, a unique European city, and the wider,political forces that tear their lives apart. Their moving storytraces the major events, turmoil, oppression and triumphs of Europethrough the last hundred years - from the Austro-HungarianEmpire to the First World War; from the vibrant artistic andintellectual life of Prague in the times of Kafka, the CapekBrothers and Masaryk to years of hunger in a Polish ghetto and theconcentration camps of Hitler; from the tyrannous rule of Stalin tothe rekindled hopes of Dubcek and the subsequent Soviet occupationto liberation under Havel. Told from Ivan's perspective, itis a poignant but uplifting tale that tells of life lived withpurpose and conviction, in the face of personal suffering andsacrifice.'A remarkable book. This archetypical story of thetwentieth century is intertwined with an almoststream-of-consciousness narrative of the history of the Czechs, ofPrague, interspersed with samples of exquisite poetry by greatcontemporary poets. So the narrative flows like Eliot's sweetThames full of the debris of tragic lives, of horrors, of momentsof beauty and testimonies of love - all against the backdropof man's inhumanity.' JosefSkvorecky'A poignant and vivid mémoire of a childsearching for traces of his father, lost in the murky ideologies ofpost war Central Europe. An engrossing book.' SirJohn Tusa