I wrote this book when I was seventeen, shortly after the
communists caught me crossing the Czech-Austrian border, trying to
get away from behind the proverbial Iron Curtain. At the time,
there was no War on Terror, and even if there had been, I probably
would not have known about it I was just a child eager to
experience Zephyr s unbounded joy, singing my own Ode, wondering at
daff odils though puzzled not by the characters on a Grecian urn
but by the rigid, stale, and spineless character of those alive,
those around me. It is not human hands that build walls, but human
mind I concluded then, and wrote this book: a brief story about the
end of the world. It came to me in a fl ash while I was sitting on
a cold stone slab in a communist prison cell. After a strip-down
body-cavity search, several hours of interrogation, staring into
the muzzles of two shotguns pointing at me from each corner of a
cold room, spotlight in my face it felt like the world had pretty
much ended for me. What a disaster I could have represented my
country in the Olympics Is this how you pay back to your generous
motherland for giving you the privilege of the highest degree? the
privilege of being among the few selected, best sportsmen and women
of this country, to enjoy the perks and privileges that
working-class people have to work hard every day to earn? to earn
for you? you live on their backs and what? is this your thank you ?
the Chief of Bratislava Secret Police spoke to me in a heavy tone
in his offi ce. I can still see myself staring out of the window,
trying to look into the man s eyes they were dark, full, flaring
eyes, unpredictable Turkish eyes and I was but a helpless beetle,
one of Kafka s caricatures, waiting to be squashed Still, I
believe, the topic of this book a small boy who is the only person
alive (or so he thinks) who survived a nuclear catastrophe,
travelling through the desert of human civilization, desperately
trying to cross the mountains to reach the ocean is a solid
allegory, which stands on firmer ground than would a simple
biblical re-creation.
General
Imprint: |
Iuniverse, Inc.
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
April 2010 |
First published: |
April 2010 |
Authors: |
Patricia Condor Sarah Patricia Condor
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 8mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
148 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-4502-2528-1 |
Languages: |
Czech
•
English
|
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
Genre fiction >
Science fiction
|
LSN: |
1-4502-2528-4 |
Barcode: |
9781450225281 |
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