Skip to content
Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 (Paperback)
  • Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 (Paperback)
zoom

Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 (Paperback)

(author), (translator), (translator)
1 Review Sign in to write a review
£12.99
Paperback 192 Pages
Published: 05/01/2012
Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
  • In stock

Usually dispatched within 1-2 days

Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
  • This item has been added to your basket

The daughter of prosperous Jews, Heda Kovály found her world turned upside down with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. Deported to Lodz Ghetto in 1941 and then to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered, in 1944, Kovaly made a miraculous escape from a column of prisoners being marched to Bergen-Belsen in early 1945.

On reuniting with her husband in Prague after the war, things started to look more hopeful. Rudolf Margolius became a deputy minister of foreign trade. But in 1952 he and 13 other government officials were tried and 11 of those hanged in one of the era's most notorious show trials. Heda Kovály and her four year old son were hounded by the state and shunned by society.

In this powerful and moving memoir, Kovály describes her imprisonment by the Nazis during WWII and her persecution by the Communists in the 1950s - a classic account of life under totalitarianism.

Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 9781847084767
Number of pages: 192
Weight: 185 g
Dimensions: 215 x 235 x 13 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

One does not 'review' a book like this. One weeps, and prays ... Beautiful evocation of lovely Prague - The Sunday Times

A book that puts the urgencies of our times and ourselves in perspective, making us confront the darker realities of human nature - Anthony Lewis, New York Times

This is an extraordinary memoir, so heartbreaking that I have reread it for months, unable to rise to the business of 'reviewing' less a book than a life repeatedly outraged by the worst totalitarians in Europe. Yet it is written with so much quite respect for the minutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how to specify Heda Kovály's splendidness as a human being - Alfred Kazin

Written with the sophistication of a litterateur and the immediacy of a survivor - Josef Škvorecký

Kovaly's writing is brilliantly sharp ...This is a brave, beautiful book about how humans can overcome atrocious abuse - Leyla Sanai, Independent

Kovály is a fine writer, with a painterly and subversive eye for detail ... This memoir covers only 27 of the author's 91 years. In the period covered, she survived more hardship and heartbreak than most people experience in a lifetime. When Prague is described as "alive, sad, and brave... when she smiles with spring, her smile glistens like a tear", Kovály could be talking about herself. Feisty, fiercely concerned with survival, truth and justice and able to win over even the most hard-hearted of officials, Kovály's resilient personality shines out of this memoir - Vanessa Curtis, Jewish Chronicle

One of the outstanding autobiographies of the century - San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner

A bleak classic of relentless persecution that reads like a dark thriller, all the more chilling for her courage in writing frankly about the hardship of daily life - Iain Finyalson, Saga

As an explanation of how Czechoslovakia slipped into communism and as a chronicle of life under a totalitarian regime Under a Cruel Star is superb ... fluent, crisp prose and a gripping read ... powerful memoir and analysis of the twin tragedies of recent Czech history - Anna Foden, Bookmunch

You may also be interested in...

Abroad in Japan
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
Unleashed
Added to basket
Hardback
£30.00 £24.99
Shakespeare
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
Raising Hare
Added to basket
Hardback
£18.99
Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad
Added to basket
Politics On the Edge
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You
Added to basket
Wintering
Added to basket
Paperback
£12.99
Cher: The Memoir
Added to basket
Hardback
£25.00 £17.99
PATRIOT
Added to basket
Hardback
£25.00 £19.99
Book Of Lives
Added to basket
Diddly Squat: Home to Roost
Added to basket
Unleashed
Added to basket
Hardback
£30.00
Source Code
Added to basket
Hardback
£25.00 £19.99
What I Ate in One Year
Added to basket
Hardback
£20.00 £16.99

“Under a Cruel Star”

A sheer unbelievable tale of human endurance and survival: the author survived the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and escaped on the Death March out of it. Homeless and hungry, she seeks refuge in her home town of Prague,... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 19

Please sign in to write a review

Your review has been submitted successfully.