The Miracle Game

New York. 1991. February 1991. Knopf. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0394572203. Translated from the Czech by Paul Wilson. 437 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration & design by Fred Marcellino. keywords: Europe Czech Literature Translated Eastern Europe World Literature. DESCRIPTION - It is 1948. Danny Smiricky, the libidinous cynic of THE COWARDS and THE ENGINEER OF HUMAN SOULS, is teaching in an all-girls school in Bohemia, where he is a master of social studies and (extracurricularly) a master of the hapless romantic entanglement and the narrow escape. One Sunday, in a little village church, Danny is witness to an inexplicable event: During the priest's sermon, a statue of St. Joseph bows to the congregation. The townspeople hail this as a miracle; the Communist Party, just come to power, moves quickly to suppress any possible exploitation of the incident on the part of the Catholic Church. It is soon proven' that the priest perpetrated a fraud; he is interrogated and tortured, and dies. Twenty years later, Danny, now a writer, moves through Prague's political and intellectual circles during the heady spring of 1968, observing the dramatis personae of the hour: First Secretary Dubcek, on whose all-too-human shoulders rests the fate of the nation; the World-Famous Playwright, sitting in a cafe, surrounded by girls, dreaming up his opposition party; the beautiful, cold-blooded Laura, for whom politically correct ends justify any means at all; countless hilariously squabbling intellectuals denouncing one another for past crimes. Now, suddenly, the case of the Bohemian miracle is reopened, and Danny is reluctantly drawn into an increasingly Byzantine investigation. What really happened all those years ago? inventory #14973.…