Publisher: Mandel Vilar press

ISBN: 978 1942134718

The night of August 20, 1968 the lives of so many would forever change as approximately 200 thousand Warsaw pact tropps and 500 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague spring. Within this novel you will meet several families that lived the events of that day, were forced to make life changing decisions that would not only affect them but their loved ones too. Prague Spring was a short time of liberation in the communist country. Based on true events we learn about how Dubcek was unanimously elected by the Czechoslovakian  Central  Community and to secure his power base, he appeared to the public to voice support for his proposed reforms which were overwhelming and Czech and Slovak reformers took over the communist leadership. Within this novel you will meet Anna, Alexander, and their daughter Petra. Erika and Josef and their son. You will also meet Tereza and her father Ferdinand and learn about each of their lives, their hardships and why they had to decide whether to remain in their homeland or leave.

Anna and Alexander had a good life and Petra was studying to be a medical doctor when the world around them changed and their lives became not their own. Promises were made and greater autonomy for Slovakia, freedom of speech and religion and the end of censorship, an end to travel restrictions and major indication and agricultural reforms. The public applauded these reforms and hoped that live would be better until August 2 when nearly 200, 000 Soviet, east German, Polish, Hungarian and Bulgarian troops involved, and this was the end of it all. Armed resistance to the invasion and the author has us experience how the protesters took to the streets and tore down street signs to confuse the invaders. In Prague, Warsaw Pact troops moved to seize control of television and radio stations. Here is where we really get to know Josef who became part of an understand and succeeded in broadcasting for days before his or other locations were learned. But affiliations would prevent him from his true calling to become ordained as a pastor or minister. Threats came from all sides and even Erika his wife was denied education in the university until a later time.

Petra and her parents lived in fear of what they might do to them and how it would affect her father’s job as a technical director, but no one was safe, and nothing was stable at this point. Decisions as to whether to remain in their country of leave before the borders were closed took time, deliberation and then when the decisions were made things became even more tense for those that were left behind.

Alexander and Petra left because he found it too dangerous for his daughter to remain, so he sent her to Canada where she lived with two others for a short time. Tereza decided to go to Israel and live on a kibbutz and then went to Vienna to see Petra but the two people she was staying with did not allow her to come back again and forced her to live on the street or under tunnels. Waiting for her father to bring her food, money and clothing and when he finally appeared the scene is heartfelt, sad and she would never see him again or her mother. The government was merciless when it came to those that left and made them feel like traitors. Throughout the novel each family had to move around and when Josef finally passes his examination in August 1969 and receives a call to become minster of a small church in East Chicago. The congregation had 50 Slovak speaking and 80 English speaking members. The Slovak members arrived during the first emigration of the 1920’s and now they are older grandparents and whose children were employed in the steelworks. Meeting them for the first time and hoping to be able to converse and communicate with them.

While this was happening Alexander, who left his wife in Czechoslovakia was hoping to hear from her and the letters he received were signed meaning that she did not write them on her own. He felt that something was killing her and the new letters that came in the spring of 1970 were killing him. They wrote to him that he was a traitor, they were disappointed that the left his country, the opportunities for his daughter would be many and but there were new people that he did not trust, and nothing is more hurtful than betrayal by a person you trust. However, what would happen to him if he did return? Would they forgive him, or would he be placed in prison? Josef and Erika moved to many different parishes to find one where they could live, the climate was better and will the more hoping that his mother might someday some there and leave the country but because he refused to give up his life and the broadcasts it was blocked. Sending an invitation to his mother to come and even getting her visa and permit to leave what happens is tragic and the result because of his job and what he believes in she never arrives.
Anna in the meantime is forced to take on many different jobs and forced to move into different spaces because of Alexander and yet she is to be admired for how she helped the Vietnamese when they needed medical attention and children were going to be born as her daughter finally gets positions in two hospitals but the unthinkable happens as she is living with her aunt and her father who suddenly takes ill and has memory issues and winds up in the hospital.

This is a story that is unforgettable and that to understand what these people endured you need to embrace the plot and read it on your own. An ending for some that is a beginning and for others the sad realities of war, life and despair. The Hot Summer of 1968 will always remain remembered in history as a day when so many lives were lost and changed forever.

In the words of one character that says it all: I have been running away all my life. Here I am at the end of the world and thank god, I can’; t goes any further. And suddenly it’; s all over and I feel good here. Added in on pages 299-301 the author tells us about the real people and who they are.