One does not 'review' a book like this. One weeps, and prays ... Beautiful evocation of lovely Prague * The Sunday Times *
A book that puts the urgencies of our times and ourselves in perspective, making us confront the darker realities of human nature -- Anthony Lewis * New York Times *
This is an extraordinary memoir, so heartbreaking that I have reread it for months, unable to rise to the business of 'reviewing' less a book than a life repeatedly outraged by the worst totalitarians in Europe. Yet it is written with so much quite respect for the minutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how to specify Heda Kovaly's splendidness as a human being -- Alfred Kazin
Written with the sophistication of a litterateur and the immediacy of a survivor -- Josef Skvorecky
Kovaly's writing is brilliantly sharp ...This is a brave, beautiful book about how humans can overcome atrocious abuse -- Leyla Sanai * Independent *
Kovaly is a fine writer, with a painterly and subversive eye for detail ... This memoir covers only 27 of the author's 91 years. In the period covered, she survived more hardship and heartbreak than most people experience in a lifetime. When Prague is described as alive, sad, and brave... when she smiles with spring, her smile glistens like a tear, Kovaly could be talking about herself. Feisty, fiercely concerned with survival, truth and justice and able to win over even the most hard-hearted of officials, Kovaly's resilient personality shines out of this memoir -- Vanessa Curtis * Jewish Chronicle *
One of the outstanding autobiographies of the century * San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner *
A bleak classic of relentless persecution that reads like a dark thriller, all the more chilling for her courage in writing frankly about the hardship of daily life -- Iain Finyalson * Saga *
As an explanation of how Czechoslovakia slipped into communism and as a chronicle of life under a totalitarian regime Under a Cruel Star is superb ... fluent, crisp prose and a gripping read ... powerful memoir and analysis of the twin tragedies of recent Czech history -- Anna Foden * Bookmunch *
