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Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 Paperback – January 1, 1997
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length192 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHolmes & Meier Publishers
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1997
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100841913773
- ISBN-13978-0841913776
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A story of human spirit at its most indomitable ... one of theoutstanding autobiographies of the century." San FranciscoChronicle-Examiner
"An extraordinary memoir...written with so much quiet respect for theminutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how tospecify Heda Kovály's splendidness as a human being ... It is impossible to read her book without the deepest admiration for her quiet, fiercedocumentation of the ordeal of the Czech people in our time." AlfredKazin
"Under A Cruel Star is the most remarkable book for a variety ofreasons: because Kovály has such a keen street sense for individualmotivations; because her writing is so precise and beautiful: and, mostof all, because she conveys such a ferocious and visceral sense that anindividual life is just as important - and just as powerful - asgovernments, militaries, and political might." E. J. Graff, BrandeisWomen's Studies Research Center, Columbia Journalism Review May / June2005
"Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start aserious young student on the hard road to understanding the politicaltragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one ... All thisis recounted in an exemplary amalgam of psychological penetration andterse style ... A Google search reveals that the book is on the course inseveral colleges, but it deserves to be more famous than that." CliveJames, Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts,W. W. Norton, New York 2007
"I used to teach it in what was for many years my favorite course, asurvey of essays and novels from Central and Eastern Europe thatincluded the writings of Milan Kundera, Václav Havel, Ivo Andric', HedaKovály, Paul Goma, and others." Tony Judt, 'Captive Minds, Then andNow', The New York Review of Books
Review
A story of the human spirit at its most indomitable ... one of the outstanding autobiographies of the century. -- San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner
Once in a rare while we read a book that puts the urgencies of our times and ourselves in perspective.... That has just happened to me. In telling her story―simply, without self-pity―[Mrs. Kovály] illuminates some general truths of human behavior. Anthony Lewis, New York Times -- Anthony Lewis, New York Times
Kovály's attention to the world’s beauty, even while in hell, is so brazen as to take my breath away. [E.J. Graff, Columbia Journalism Review -- E.J. Graff, Columbia Journalism Review
This is a book that should never have had to be written; but since it had, we are lucky that it was done so well. -- Clive James, Cultural Amnesia
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Holmes & Meier Publishers; First Thus edition (January 1, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 192 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0841913773
- ISBN-13 : 978-0841913776
- Item Weight : 9 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #27,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #148 in European History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Helen Epstein is best known for her non-fiction trilogy Children of the Holocaust; Where She Came From; and The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma. All three reviewed here:
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/265180/sexual-abuse-holocaust-survivor-epstein
In 2022 book, she published Getting Through It: My Year of Cancer during Covid.
Born in Prague, Helen grew up in New York City. She graduated from Hunter College High School, Hebrew University, and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, then began freelancing for diverse publications including the Sunday New York Times. Her profiles of legendary musicians are collected in the book Music Talks.
She began teaching journalism at New York University in 1974 and became the first woman in the department to be awarded tenure. In 1986, she left NYU to move to Massachusetts. She now lectures at universities; health organizations; high schools; synagogues, libraries and churches, and writes for the New England cultural website The Arts Fuse. Contact her through her website: helenepstein.com.
Heda Margolius Kovály was born Heda Blochová to Jewish parents in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where she lived and married her childhood sweetheart, Rudolf Margolius, until 1941 when her family was rounded up along with the first 5,000 of the city's Jewish population and taken to the Lodz Ghetto in central Poland. When the Jews were taken out of the ghetto and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 she was separated from her parents and husband. After arriving at Auschwitz, she was chosen to survive - though her parents were immediately gassed - and to work as a labourer in the Christianstadt labour camp. When the Eastern Front of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union approached the camp, its prisoners were evacuated. With a few other women in the first months of 1945, she decided while on the death march to Bergen-Belsen, to escape back to Prague. After arriving in the city, Margolius discovered that most of the people who remained in the city during the war were too frightened by the threat of German punishment to aid an escapee from the camps. When Soviet forces finally freed Prague from Nazi control the Communist Party began to rise. The experiences of her husband at Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps had led him to become a communist. Having been asked, he took a job with the Communist government of Klement Gottwald as Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, despite his own and his wife's reservations about the position.
In 1952, her husband was found guilty of conspiracy during the notorious Slánský trial. Rudolf was one of the eleven Jews on the list of fourteen accused. Having been prevented from seeing her husband for eleven months after his arrest, and after he and the other arrested Jews gave false confessions extracted by torture, Heda later learned that he had been hanged and his body cremated and given to security officials for disposal. In a final indignity, a few miles out of Prague, the officials' limousine began to skid on the icy road and his ashes were thrown under the wheels to create traction. Related to 'a people's enemy' her life was made harder - "Heda was thrown out of her job and her apartment, and then additionally persecuted for being unemployed and homeless." Their son, Ivan Margolius, was raised in impoverished conditions. For as long as the Communist Party remained in power, she was kept from good jobs and socially shunned. She did not tell Ivan the truth about what happened to his father until he was sixteen years old.
Heda re-married in 1955 to Pavel Kovály. His name was brought down because of his association with her as the widow of the alleged traitor, her first husband, Rudolf Margolius. Finally in 1968, when once again Soviet Union troops invaded Prague after the Prague Spring and occupation seemed inevitable, Margolius Kovály fled Czechoslovakia to the United States.
She worked as a librarian in the Harvard Law School library at Harvard University, in Boston, Massachusetts. Margolius Kovály returned to Prague with her second husband in 1996.
Heda Margolius Kovály's memoir was originally written in Czech and published in Canada under the title 'Na vlastní kůži' by 68 Publishers in Toronto in 1973. An English translation appeared in the same year as the first part of the book 'The Victors and the Vanquished' published by Horizon Press in New York. A British edition of the book excluded the second treatise and was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson under the title 'I Do Not Want To Remember' in 1973.
In 1986, Heda re-published her memoir 'Under A Cruel Star - A Life in Prague 1941-1968' (published in the United Kingdom as 'Prague Farewell'). The memoir is dedicated to her son and it has been widely translated and is available in French and English as an e-book.
In 1985 Heda published a novel called 'Nevina' ('Innocence') in Czech by Index, Köln and re-published in the Czech Republic in 2013. In 2015 the English translation of 'Innocence' by Alex Zucker was published by Soho Press, New York.
In 2015 Heda together with Helena Třeštíková published 'Hitler, Stalin a já' (Hitler, Stalin and I) in Czech by Mladá fronta in Prague. In 2018 'Hitler, Stalin and I' was published in English by DoppelHouse Press, Los Angeles.
In Czechoslovakia and in the USA between 1958 and 1989 Heda translated from German or English into the Czech language over 24 works of well-known world authors such as Arnold Zweig, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Arnold Bennett, Muriel Spark, William Golding, John Steinbeck, H. G. Wells, Budd Schulberg, Arthur Miller and many others.
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Customers find the narrative poignant and insightful. They describe the book as an interesting read that makes them feel for the author. The writing quality is described as wonderful and beautiful. It provides valuable information about an era and should be required reading for students of world history. The pacing is described as calm, describing the horrors of living under Communism.
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Customers find the narrative poignant and insightful. They describe it as a great story of human perseverance and heart-wrenching. The book is described as an extraordinary account of a young Jewish woman living through the holocaust and Communist Russia.
"...can only be very happy that Ms. Kovaly was able to survive and overcome her ordeals and be able to write about her life...." Read more
"...It really puts daily modern life into perspective and opens your brain to how we judge each other, and to the kinds of politics that have changed so..." Read more
"...All in all, a well written and poignant account of one person's life under these most horrifying of circumstances. Definitely recommended." Read more
"...Kovaly's insightful narrative is extraordinary: It relates from a personal perspective the suffering of a captive nation, Czechoslovakia, under not..." Read more
Customers find the book well-written and engaging. They describe it as an interesting read about a remarkable woman's triumph over tragedy. While some felt the narrative lacks continuity, overall they found the book insightful and an effective personal account of Kovaly's life.
"...And for the general reader this book is a must read. The book is a very well written account of survival under very difficult circumstances." Read more
"...This is an absolute must read...." Read more
"This book was so tragic yet a valuable read...." Read more
"...Her writing is highly lyrical, the thinking complicated and admirable considering what she lived through...." Read more
Customers praise the writing quality of the book. They find it engaging and emotional, with well-crafted descriptions that make them feel for the author. The memoir is described as an easy read for undergraduate students without bitterness and a great style.
"...And her autobiographical book is very well written with very intelligent and observant descriptions of both her thoughts and feelings and the..." Read more
"...Her writing is highly lyrical, the thinking complicated and admirable considering what she lived through...." Read more
"...All in all, a well written and poignant account of one person's life under these most horrifying of circumstances. Definitely recommended." Read more
"This crisply written, highly readable memoir reveals the tragedy of human life, collective and individual, under totalitarian forms of government...." Read more
Customers find the book informative and useful for understanding history. They say it's a good read for students of world history and a must-read for anyone interested in the past. The book provides an interesting account of events in Czechoslovakia during the Second World War and post-war Hungary.
"...This book is an excellent and invaluable historical description of post World War II and Stalinist Czechoslovakia...." Read more
"...that seem to be hidden or forgotten, this is necessary for understanding the world around you, and the past that should never be hidden or forgotten..." Read more
"...This book should be required reading for students of world history and perhaps should be read by all of us who have never been forced to have our..." Read more
"...i was blown away by her accounts of history. how she escaped Auschwitz and lived in hiding in prague and how life was flipped multiple times over...." Read more
Customers find the book's pacing good. They say it calmly describes the horrors of living in Communist countries, and how hatred was spawned under Nazism and Communism.
"Very good as a personal vignette and certainly an indictment of totalitarian regimes but not scholarly enough to draw political or philosophical..." Read more
"...is about how Heda's strength prevailed and how hate was spawned under nazism and communism. Great book" Read more
"Wonderful. Calmly describes the horror of living in Communist ......" Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2012Ms. Kovaly has written a very valuable autobiographical book. As a Jewish Czech coming of age in the 1940's she has had quite a life. She was Nazi concentration camp inmate, a refugee from the Nazis at the end of World War II, a resident of Prague, Czechoslovakia, and witness to the end of World War II and the rise of the Communist Party to power in that country. She was married to a Communist Party member who was also one of the top officials of the Czechoslovakian government and who was later purged and executed in the 1953 so called Slansky plot. And her autobiographical book is very well written with very intelligent and observant descriptions of both her thoughts and feelings and the milieu surrounding her. Ms. Kovaly describes the dependence and limited sense of the future of the Nazi concentration camp inmates, the struggles and the renewed sense of false hope of her friends and herself in postwar Prague, and the past catastrophes, false hopes, and ongoing pressures that led to the rise of communism in Czechoslovakia. Also written about is her life as an illustrator in the increasingly Stalinist country. She also describes the heart rendering problems she faced when her husband was executed.
The reader can only be very happy that Ms. Kovaly was able to survive and overcome her ordeals and be able to write about her life. It should also be mentioned that besides a wife and a mother Ms. Kovaly was an illustrator, translator, and librarian with a very intelligent interest in architecture and the fine arts.
This book is an excellent and invaluable historical description of post World War II and Stalinist Czechoslovakia. No student of European history student should miss this work. And for the general reader this book is a must read. The book is a very well written account of survival under very difficult circumstances.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2020This is an intense and eye opening memoir I read for my Women in Modern Europe course during my second year at University. I’m astonished by the resilience of this woman, and the horrors she faced both during and after World War 2. This is an absolute must read. It really puts daily modern life into perspective and opens your brain to how we judge each other, and to the kinds of politics that have changed so many lives in unimaginable ways. Please read this. As an American who feels like our education system has failed to deliver foreign stories that seem to be hidden or forgotten, this is necessary for understanding the world around you, and the past that should never be hidden or forgotten again.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2024This book was so tragic yet a valuable read. It shows how coming out of the atrocities of WW2 - how it was easy for people to be looking for a better path. They felt the government had let them down by falling to the Germans so easily and how the Russians had liberated them. So they turned to Communism. The interesting part to me is how others lied about how great communism was to look good to the party to get a better spot for themselves and how there were red flags but they were easily ignored. Then the borders were sealed and communication with the outside world was blocked and the propaganda against the west was fierce so people only knew what the communists were telling them. It turned into an "every man for himself" and the ugly side of human nature ruled. Heda was part of the elite communists so it's interesting to see even at the top it was scary. This book while tragic is hopeful because you see how eventually truth comes out and people realize they've been duped and they fight back. I loved the ending of this book. This is a must read to ensure this doesn't happen again.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2016I rather stumbled across the memoir while shopping herein. Bought it because the view of both oppressive, twisted regimes (Hitler, then Stalin) was something I had not read in the context of Czechoslovakia. The volume itself is not a well produced paperback--very little in it other than Ms. Margolius Kovaly's words, i.e no introduction, forward--nothing. Starts off right out the starting gate, and ends the same way. It would have been appropriate to have the author's biography--in fact the cover photo is not credited as to photographer or the people pictured. You are left to assume it is the author and her son.but it might have been anyone. Her writing is highly lyrical, the thinking complicated and admirable considering what she lived through. And lived through them she did; Heda Margolius Kovaly had to have been one tough cookie to survive from 1940 through 1958 or so. It is an almost unrelenting narrative of misery and human stupidity in the political sphere. Without a carefully written credo such as the Bill of Rights, a government can turn into the embodiment of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's notorious term, "A Generation of Swine".. tt certainly did in Czechoslovakia.
Top reviews from other countries
- AidanReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars A Humbling Read
This is a stunning read. Heda brings us through over two decades in Prague, (and beyond) that features tragic events that would destroy the average person. The inner strength of Heda and her remarkable resilience shines through.
- Peter D.Reviewed in Canada on December 22, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book that will stay with you for a long time.
Heda Margolius and her family was the victim of two of the most repugnant regimes in the 20th century – the Nazis and the communist Soviet Union. It is a story about her indomitable will to live, her fight for justice and a lifelong pain. This is a part of history of life behind the Iron curtain in the years after WWII that we have an obligation to learn about and keep alive. The reader will experience, one after the other, sadness, anger, a feeling of triumph and a longing for a happier ending.
- Lana PhillipsReviewed in Australia on July 15, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down
Well written, personal and informative, would recommend
- TheresaReviewed in Canada on January 14, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Excellent and well written book!
- Myrna Wyatt SelkirkReviewed in Canada on June 25, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book
I spent a week in Prague recently and this book resonated deeply.