Changes

It's what is commonly called a beautifully written novel, and there is a captivating beauty in the writing , the whole account slightly misty and nostalgic; luminously elegiac, graceful and occasionally mesmerising, and the description of a "stylist" will undoubtedly be applied to Mark Slouka (the comparisons with English Patient are probably unavoidable). The war-time moral dilemmas and choices were portrayed sensitively, and the vignettes of life in the occupied Czechoslovakia rang true, though the relative normality of conditions before the repressions following the Heydrich assassination seemed almost too mild, in comparison to what I know of life in Poland at that time, but I don't doubt Slouka did his research.

I am glad I read this book, though I was initially dubious as the first part seemed to draw out a bit too much in its self-absorbed vagueness. I often had impatient thoughts of 'and what is the purpose of this paragraph? ' variety and at the beginning of the second part I wasn't particularly taken with the - fairly unoriginal - angle of a passionate, doomed war-time love affair. The fact that I didn't like either of the two main protagonists didn't really help. But it did all, somehow, come together for me as well, and the ending (both the twist in the tale and the denouement) was excellent.

If you like this type of novel then we think that you might also enjoy [[Divisadero]] by Michael Ondaatjeor [[Blue Horse Dreaming by Melanie Wallace]].