By
– September 16, 2011
This fast-paced detective story is distinctive in that it weaves two events in 1968— Berkeley’s student protests and the Czech uprising against the Soviet Union, for which the book is named, and mixes in flashbacks by the central character to his time as a prisoner in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Inspector Simon Wolfe works for the San Francisco Police Department, and is a Holocaust survivor who was a member of the Mossad’s “Nokim,” a group that killed Nazis. When a congressman’s son is murdered, Wolfe’s attempts to solve the crime are inhibited by the police and the congressman as he is blackmailed about his past. He is further compromised by his feelings for the murder victim’s psychiatrist, who is a child of Holocaust survivors herself. Wolfe is a sympathetic character, though he is a loner with unshakable opinions. Wolfe’s insistence on following through with this case leads the reader to explore the ideas of political corruption, revenge, justice, and survival.
Miriam Bradman Abrahams, mom, grandmom, avid reader, sometime writer, born in Havana, raised in Brooklyn, residing in Long Beach on Long Island. Longtime former One Region One Book chair and JBC liaison for Nassau Hadassah, currently presenting Incident at San Miguel with author AJ Sidransky who wrote the historical fiction based on her Cuban Jewish refugee family’s experiences during the revolution. Fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, certified hatha yoga instructor.