FICTION

Prague Spring

by Simon Mawer
Other. Nov. 2018. 416p. ISBN 9781590519660. pap. $17.95; ebk. ISBN 9781590519677. F
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British diplomat Sam Wareham, stationed in Prague, is captivated by Czech student Lenka, who, like Lara in Dr. Zhivago, is abused by an influential man. In the West, "just-friends" Oxford students James and Eleanor continue their continental hitchhiking tour into Prague. They arrive on the eve of the Warsaw Pact's 1968 move to crush President Alexander Dubček's "socialism with a human face." Jolted by an attack on Lenka, James and Eleanor lose their adolescent joie de vivre in the blink of an eye. Sam has to shepherd his nationals out of the country and cannot help his adored Lenka either.
VERDICT Billed as historical spy fiction, this newest work from Mawer (The Glass Room) succeeds as an infiltration into the nuanced territory of Alan Furst and Joseph Kanon. Though the sensuous attraction of lovers teasing each other could be a distraction, here it is a mirror of the interplay of youthful Czechoslovaks who believe in the burgeoning political springtime yet also fear it.
Reviewed by Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA , Sep 15, 2018
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