New York Times bestselling author Simon Mawer returns to Czechoslovakia, this time during the turbulent 1960s, with a suspenseful story of sex, politics, and betrayal.
In the summer of 1968, the year of the Prague Spring with a Cold War winter, Oxford students James Borthwick and Eleanor Pike set out to hitchhike across Europe, complicating a budding friendship that could be something more. Having reached southern Germany, they decide on a whim to visit Czechoslovakia, where Alexander Dubcek's "socialism with a human face" is smiling on the world.
Meanwhile, Sam Wareham, First Secretary at the British embassy in Prague, observes developments in the country with a diplomat's cynicism and a young man's passion. In the company of Czech student Lenka Konecková, he finds a way into the world of Czechoslovak youth, with all its hopes and new ideas; now, nothing seems off-limits behind the Iron Curtain. But the great wheels of politics are grinding in the background; Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev is making demands of Dubcek, and the Red Army is massing on the borders.
This shrewd, engrossing, and sensual novel once again proves Simon Mawer is one of today's most talented writers of historical spy fiction.
About the Author :
Simon Mawer is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Glass Room, which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. His other novels include The Fall, which won the Boardman Tasker Prize; The Gospel of Judas; and Mendel's Dwarf, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. English by birth, he has made Italy his home for more than thirty years.
Ralph Lister is an actor, voice actor, and AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. He spent fifteen years in London theater before moving to the United States to focus on film and television. He has held numerous roles in Shakespeare and modern dramas, as well as starring roles in independent films. His voice and character work can be heard in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearland 13 Going On 30. He lives in Los Angeles.
Review :
"Making a strong return to the Eastern European setting of his acclaimed novel The Glass Room, British author Mawer limns the Cold War to affecting and ultimately chilling effect."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"Masterly and chilling...As good as anything Simon Mawer has written; which means it is very good indeed."
-- "Scotsman (Edinburgh)"
"Mawer brilliantly captures the differing shades of naïveté and world weariness that characterize the Czech response to the possibility of greater freedom...[A] smart and touching look at the folly and sweetness of the young."
-- "Booklist"
"Mawer is marvelous at historical detail, and danger mounts in a way that keeps the pages turning."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"Though the sensuous attraction of lovers teasing each other could be a distraction, here it is a mirror of the interplay of youthful Czechoslovaks who believe in the burgeoning political springtime yet also fear it."
-- "Library Journal"
