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
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
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?