Heda Margolius Kovaly

Innocence: Or, Murder on Steep Street Heda Margolius Kovaly

Brief Description: "This rediscovered gem of Czech literature, a crime novel by renowned Holocaust memoirist Heda Margolius Kovaly, depicts a chilling moment in history, redolent with the stifling atmosphere of political and personal oppression of the early days of Socialist Czechoslovakia. In 1985, Czech Holocaust memoirist, literary translator, and political exile Heda Margolius Kovaly turned her pen to fiction. Inspired by the stories of Raymond Chandler, Kovaly knit her own terrifying experiences in early 1950s Socialist Prague -- her husband's imprisonment and wrongful execution, her own persecution at his disgrace -- into a gorgeous psychological thriller-cum-detective novel. Set in and around a cinema where a murder was recently committed, Innocence follows the unfolding of the investigation while telling the stories of the women who work there as ushers, each of whom is forced to support herself in difficult circumstances. As the novel brings this group alive, it tells their various life stories that have brought them to this job, the secrets they share with one another, and the secrets they keep. When the detective trying to solve the first murder is found slain by the cinema, all of their secrets come into the light. A smart, evocative, and deeply stirring literary crime novel with international appeal"--Review Quotes: Praise for "Under a Cruel Star" "This is an extraordinary memoir, so heartbreaking that I have reread it for months, unable to rise to the business of 'reviewing' less a book than a life repeatedly outraged by the worst totalitarians in Europe. Yet it is written with so much quiet respect for the minutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how to specify Heda KovAly's splendidness as a human being.""--The New York Times Book Review""Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one."--Clive James, "Cultural Amnesia""One of the outstanding autobiographies of the century."" --San Francisco Chronicle " "A masterpiece of memoir still awaiting its due."" --The American Interest ""KovAly's attention to the world's beauty, even while in hell, is so brazen as to take my breath away."" --Columbia Journalism Review" "A tragic story told with aplomb, humor and tenderness . . . Highly recommended."--"Publishers Weekly" "An exceptionally intimate and poignant memoir . . . Illuminating."--"Library Journal"Review Quotes: Praise for "Innocence: Or, Murder on Steep Street" "KovAly's skill as a mystery writer shines, as she uses suspense, hints, and suggestions to literally play with the reader's mind... an excellent novel.""--New York Journal of Books" Praise for "Under a Cruel Star""This is an extraordinary memoir, so heartbreaking that I have reread it for months, unable to rise to the business of 'reviewing' less a book than a life repeatedly outraged by the worst totalitarians in Europe. Yet it is written with so much quiet respect for the minutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how to specify Heda KovAly's splendidness as a human being.""--The New York Times Book Review""Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one."--Clive James, "Cultural Amnesia""One of the outstanding autobiographies of the century."" --San Francisco Chronicle " "A masterpiece of memoir still awaiting its due."" --The American Interest ""KovAly's attention to the world's beauty, even while in hell, is so brazen as to take my breath away."" --Columbia Journalism Review" "A tragic story told with aplomb, humor and tenderness . . . Highly recommended."--"Publishers Weekly" "An exceptionally intimate and poignant memoir . . . Illuminating."--"Library Journal"Review Quotes: Praise for "Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street" "A luminous testament from a dark time, "Innocence"is at once a clever"hommage"to Raymond Chandler, and a portrait of a city Prague caught and held fast in a state of Kafkaesque paranoia. Only a great survivor could have written such a book." John Banville "Capturing the fear and oppression of living in a police state, this dark novel, reflective of its time and written by a writer who lived her material, will enthrall noir enthusiasts and readers of literary historical fiction."" Library Journal" "In noirish tones, ["Innocence"] depicts the dark streets, the lost souls, and a very difficult time to be judged guilty or innocent by one s supposed friends or by the oppressive and rising Czechoslovakian Communist regime."" Booklist" "Previously unpublished in English, this mystery by the late Czech translator and author of the memoir Under a Cruel Star vividly depicts Communist-oppressed 1950s Prague... That Kovaly's first husband was unjustly executed by the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1952 gives her narrative of double lives and betrayal a painful veracity."" Publishers Weekly" Double lives, secrets, informers, microdots, and above all, lies . . . Set in post-war Prague, a repressive political maze, "Innocence" is a must-read, a psychological drama played out in crystal prose. Not only did Heda Margolius Kovaly write an emotionally wrenching tale, she lived it during the 1950s Communist state. Cara Black "Kovaly s skill as a mystery writer shines, as she uses suspense, hints, and suggestions to literally play with the reader s mind . . . An excellent novel." New York Journal of Books Praise for"Under a Cruel Star" This is an extraordinary memoir, so heartbreaking that I have reread it for months, unable to rise to the business of reviewing less a book than a life repeatedly outraged by the worst totalitarians in Europe. Yet it is written with so much quiet respect for the minutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how to specify Heda Kovaly s splendidness as a human being. " The New York Times Book Review" Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one. Clive James, "Cultural Amnesia" One of the outstanding autobiographies of the century. " San Francisco Chronicle " A masterpiece of memoir still awaiting its due. " The American Interest " Kovaly's attention to the world s beauty, even while in hell, is so brazen as to take my breath away. " Columbia Journalism Review" "A tragic story told with aplomb, humor and tenderness . . . Highly recommended." "Publishers Weekly" "An exceptionally intimate and poignant memoir . . . Illuminating." "Library Journal""Brief Description: "In 1985, Czech Holocaust memoirist, literary translator, and political exile Heda Margolius Kovaly turned her pen to fiction. Inspired by the stories of Raymond Chandler, Kovaly knit her own terrifying experiences in early 1950s Socialist Prague--her husband's imprisonment and wrongful execution, her own persecution at his disgrace--into a gorgeous psychological thriller-cum-detective novel. Set in and around a cinema where a murder was recently committed, Innocence follows the unfolding of the investigation while telling the stories of the women who work there as ushers, each of whom is forced to support herself in difficult circumstances. As the novel brings this group alive, it tells their various life stories that have brought them to this job, the secrets they share with one another, and the secrets they keep. When the detective trying to solve the first murder is found slain by the cinema, all of their secrets come into the light"--Marc Notes: Translated from the Czech.; Set in and around a cinema where a murder was recently committed, 'Innocence' follows the unfolding of the investigation while telling the stories of the women who work there as ushers, each of whom is forced to support herself in difficult circumstances. As the novel brings this group alive, it tells their various life stories that have brought them to this job, the secrets they share with one another, and the secrets they keep. Biographical Note: Heda Margolius Kovaly, a Czech writer and translator, was born in 1919 in Prague to Jewish parents. "Under a Cruel Star," Kovaly s memoir of her time in Auschwitz and the early years of Czechoslovak communism, was first published in 1973 and has since been translated into many languages all over the world. Her crime novel, "Innocence," is based in large part on her own experiences in early 1950s Prague. Kovaly died in 2010 at age 91. Alex Zucker has translated novels by Czech authors Jachym Topol, Miloslava Holubova, Petra H lova, and Patrik Ou ednik. He has received an English PEN Award for Writing in Translation, an NEA Literary Fellowship, and the ALTA National Translation Award. Alex lives in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Visit his website at www.alexjzucker.com"Publisher Marketing: Famed Holocaust memoirist Heda Margoulis Kovaly ("Under a Cruel Star") knits her own terrifying experiences in Soviet Prague into a powerful, Raymond Chandler-esque work of literary suspense. 1950s Prague is a city of numerous small terrors, of political tyranny, corruption and surveillance. There is no way of knowing whether one s neighbor is spying for the government, or what one s 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 trap. But 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 cinema s female ushers, each of whom is hiding a dark secret of her own. Nearly 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." Review Citations:

Publishers Weekly 04/06/2015 (EAN 9781616954963, Hardcover)

Library Journal 05/01/2015 pg. 63 (EAN 9781616954963, Hardcover)

Booklist 05/15/2015 pg. 27 (EAN 9781616954963, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Zucker, Alex Alex Zucker is an editor, writer and translator of Czech literature. He has received an English PEN Award for Writing in Translation, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and the ALTA National Translation Award. He currently serves as co-chair of the PEN America Translation Committee.