Mark Slouka

The Visible World Lib/E Mark Slouka

An immensely moving, powerfully romantic novel about the vagaries of love and the legacy of war, The Visible World is narrated by theAmerican-born son of Czech immigrants. His New York childhood, lived in aboisterous community of the displaced, is suffused with stories: fragments ofEuropean history, Czech fairy tales, and family secrets gleaned from overheardconversations. Central in his young imagination is the heroic account of theseven Czech parachutists who, in 1942, assassinated a high-ranking Nazi. Yetone essential story has always evaded him: his mother's. He suspects she had agreat wartime love, the loss of which bred a sadness that slowly engulfed her. As an adult, the narrator travels to Prague, hoping to piece together herhidden past.