The Taste of Ashes - The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe (Paperback)

A shimmering literary examination of the ghost of communism, a haunting presence of Europe's past
Oskar has just killed himself. After waiting a quarter century, he returned to Prague only to find it was no longer his home. With his memorial service, Yale historian and prize-winning author Marci Shore leads us gently into the post-totalitarian world. We meet a professor of literature who as a child played chess with the extortionist who had come to deliver him to the Gestapo and an elderly Trotskyite whose deformed finger is a memento of seventeen years in the Soviet gulag. Parents who had denounced their teenage dissident daughter to the communist secret police plead for understanding. For all of these people, the fall of Communism has not ended history but rather summoned the past: rebellion in 1968, Stalinism, the Second World War, the Holocaust. The revolutions of 1989 opened the archives, illuminating the tragedy of twentieth-century Eastern Europe: there were moments in which no decisions were innocent, in which all possible choices caused suffering.
As the author reads pages in the lives of others, she reveals the intertwining of the personal and the political, of love and cruelty, of intimacy and betrayal. The result is a lyrical, touching, and sometimes heartbreaking portrayal of how history moves and what history means.

General

Imprint:	Crown Publications
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	2014
First published:	2014
Authors:	Marci Shore
Dimensions:	203 x 132 x 22mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	384
ISBN-13:	978-0-307-88882-2
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > European history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > General Books > History > European history > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
LSN:	0-307-88882-7
Barcode:	9780307888822

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!