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 | I was born in Prague during the last years of WWII, and for the first seventeen years of my life I lived in central Bohemia in a small village called Záryby. During my childhood the world was already divided into two parts, East and West. For the first twenty years after the war in Europe there was very little exchange of information and the general population on both sides relied mainly on their imagination. East and West were not just diverse systems; they were in fact deadly enemies. They both claimed superiority and accused each other of lies and diversions. At the time of writing 'The Vigor Ting', I had spent half of my life in each part of this divided world, trying to live my life as close to my dreams as I was allowed to. | |||
| I met people and visited places I never would have,should I have not crossed that partition. I did, and paid a high price for it; I had to change my home and friends. I have also unintentionally complicated my life. The Czechoslovakian secret police kept a dossier on me, containing hundreds of pages of testimonies and accusations, some of which were released after the change of the political system there. They questioned my accidental connections with people in high positions, who they believed were far remote from my social status in society. That by itself, was a reason good enough to accuse me of being a spy and to start years of investigations. Twice I committed the crime of leaving Czechoslovakia illegally, and twice I was given a jail sentence. Yet paradoxically, the only days I spent in detention were my first days after I entered the free Western world. I travelled to places which were like some distant fairy-tale kingdoms, full of a friendly atmosphere and friendly people. However, the world has changed drastically since then. These friendly people are now engaged in different wars, that friendly atmosphere has evaporated and roads I used to travel on are now closed or do not exist any more. With every new episode I lived through, with every new place I entered, my roles in life were perpetually changing. Some were sad and some were happy, some were even tragic, and some roles were almost comic. Nevertheless, every new role gave me a new start; every new role has renewed my vigor and replenished the courage I needed to face the events to come. In my opinion, it used to be a better world, and I consider living through those exciting times as a priceless reward. Reward, I am not aware how I deserved. | ||||
Author's page with biography, photos and list of all books     here | ||||
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