This cold-war mystery by a Holocaust memoirist takes us to the repressive streets of Prague in the 1950s. In an era of strict communist repression, daily life is marked by corruption, big-brother scrutiny and near hopelessness. In the authorities’ eyes, every citizen is a suspected enemy of the state. For the average citizen, everyone is a potential informer.
When a young boy is murdered at a cinema, the state apparatus jumps into action in typically communist fashion, tarring everyone with a brush of suspicion. The result is a novel that’s more psychological drama than mystery—more of an indictment of communism’s paranoia. Don’t expect an escapist read. If you’re a stickler for the conventions of the genre, you might be disappointed by the lack of action. Reviewed on Oct. 14, 2021