Famed Holocaust memoirist Heda Margoulis Kovaacutely Under a Cruel Star knits her own terrifying experiences in Soviet Prague into a powerful Raymond Chandler-esque work of literary suspense s Prague is a city of numerous small terrors of political tyranny corruption and surveillance There is no way of knowing whether onersquos neighbor is spying for the government or what onersquos supposed friend will say under pressure to a State Security agent A loyal Party member might be imprisoned or executed as quickly as a traitor innocence means nothing for a person caught in a government trapBut there are larger terrors too When a little boy is murdered at the cinema where his aunt works the ensuing investigation sheds a little too much light on the personal lives of the cinemarsquos female ushers each of whom is hiding a dark secret of her ownNearly lost to censorship this rediscovered gem of Czech literature depicts a chilling moment in history redolent with the stifling atmosphere of political and personal oppression of the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia.
