Torch
1969, the year after the Prague Spring was crushed in August by Soviet tanks rolling over the “socialism with a human face” into Czechoslovakia, and four friends just coming of age learn to deal with the new reality. Religious Pavol and his friends Štěpán and Tomáš write a letter to the authorities expressing their frustration with the harsh new rules. For his anti-Russian activities, Pavol has been denied his place at the university, which leaves him without a future beyond working in the killing mines. When their letter isn’t even read, in despair Pavol sets himself on fire—a “torch”—in the public square, emulating the real case of Jan Palach and others at the time. Štěpán, Tomáš, and Pavol’s girlfriend Lída, who discovers she is carrying Pavol’s child, have to decide how to get on with their lives. Tomáš’s communist party bigwigs and his own “antisocialist” autism and Štěpán’s forbidden homosexuality complicate their decisions.
I cannot praise this book highly enough. The publisher touts it as a Young Adult title, as was Miller-Lachmann’s previous historical novel, but limiting it to this audience would be a shame. Like all the best historical fiction, without sacrificing period perspectives, we are forced to look to our own souls. The number of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the opening pages brings echoes of the historical circumstances into our present day, of which the author in her note assures us she is fully conscious. The materialism of capitalism the Czech authorities warn their young people against when Western books and records are banned can also crush the hopeful young soul. May the power of this novel be part of the solution.
