I purchased this book in the English language section of a bookstore in Prague a few years ago and just got around to reading it. This is story of a young (preteen?) Czech orphan who gets caught up in the Prague Spring and subsequent Soviet invasion. He has many adventures, some quite unbelievable, but eventually becomes somewhat jaded even at his young age.

Ilya, the main character and narrator, is young and this is captured well by the narrative voice. You can really imagine a kid telling these tales. It seems many of the adventures are embellished or perhaps misunderstood by his child-like mind. But Ilya grows up fast during the war and his naïveté wears off and is replaced by cynicism. I enjoyed learning more about the history of that time and place and ending was fantastic. The whole book didn't quite grab me, until pretty late in though. Good read. ( )