Czech Hotels Travel :: Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968


Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968

Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968
List Price: $9.95
Czech Hotels Travel Price: $211.16
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 943.71204092
EAN: 9780140126433
ISBN: 0140126430
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 1989-10-01
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Related Items

Editorial Reviews:



Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Its the story that plays in my head whenever tragedy befalls me & gives me the strength to get through it.
Comment: I read this about 6 years ago when it was assigned in one of my undergrad classes. There are enough online reviews for you to read about the plot and like. Rather I want to tell you how her voice has stuck with me. I think of her ability to see the slivering when everything is just gray, and her amazing capacity to keep going. Whenever I think I can't go on, this death/or lost/ or series of unfortunate events as shattered the very last of my will I remember her words. I highly recommend it. I regally give this as a gift, I know I'm not just giving someone a powerful story, but really I'm giving someone a packet of extra strength for when they need it most in life.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: A lifetime of suffering: Under a Cruel Star
Comment: This is a well-written, quick read. Heda's 27 years of suffering - first at the hands of the Nazis & then under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia - is heart rending. It's a book that should be part of high school curriculums to raise awareness of what too many people had to endure in the middle of the last century. It would be much more effective than relying on a history textbook that deals only with the 'facts.'

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Good book
Comment: I would recommend this book to anyone. Even if you think you don't like reading about history, you'll like this book. In fact, it is books like these that are the reason I love history so much, and why I'm majoring in it. It isn't about the politics or the wars or whatever else (although those are certainly important), it is the story of a woman trying to survive through a hell most of us cannot even imagine has existed on this earth, especially not in the last 50 years. Peoples' lives are what connect us to the past, and what make it relevant to the future. It gives a little meaning and heart behind all the dates and events that you have to memorize in class...make them more personal. And furthermore, you will be inspired by this woman. Her strength and character is admirable, to say the very least. Actually, I don't think even a fictional writer could invent a heroine more honorable than this one.

So please, read it. stories like these deserve to be shared.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: great
Comment: it is a great book use in my world civ class, and highly recommmand by my professor and TAs.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Prague Farewell
Comment: Clive James, in "Cultural Amnsia' - his magesterial review of literature and totalitarianism - said: "Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding of the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one". It tells a remarkable personal tale of a Jewish girl in Prague caught up by the Nazis and going to Auschwitz, then her escape and return to her beloved Prague, and subsequent worse sufferings under the communist government in the 1950s and 1960s. Her husband was a high ranking government official but later was put on a show trial and killed.

"Under a Cruel Star" (also called "Prague Farewell" in some editions) is not as bleak as the story sounds. It is a slim volume of hope and understanding, written elegantly by a woman who later in life worked as a translator from English and finished her working life in the Harvard Law School library.


Buy it now at Amazon.com!


Czech Trips Books

Czech Trips DVD

Czech Trips Softwares

Czech Trips Magazines

Czech Posters

Czech Art Prints


Czech Travel 2008 Calendars


2008 Monthly Calendars


Czech Hotels Travel Special Resources
Czech Arts
Czech Entertainment
Czech Government
Czech Business
Czech Culture
Czech Education
Czech Health
Czech Map
Sports & Recreation
Travel & Tourism
Food and Recipes
Czech Festivals
Czech Hotels
Czech Museums
Czech Transportation


Czech Destinations
Prague, Czech
Brno, Czech
Plzen, Czech


Czech Hotels
Prague Hotels
Brno Hotels
Praha Hotels




Czech Hotels Travel | About | Ads | Contact | Terms of Use | Czech Resources | Czech Hotels Travel Site Directory

Czech Hotels Travel
Maintained by: Marketer Solutions | Link Building