A Desert in Bohemia

by Jill Paton Walsh

From the Booker Prize shortlisted author of Knowledge of Angels .

It is 1945. A group of refugees, from various backgrounds, take shelter in a castle somewhere in Central Europe. The group includes Count Michael Blansky, the castle’s ancestral owner. But the war has changed things forever. In a storm of ideological change, the existing order and the aristocratic heritage of ten generations are brushed aside by the arrival of Communism, and Count Michael must join the flood of refugees if he is to survive. Told through the eyes of nine characters who live through the forty years between the end of the war and the fall of Communism, A Desert in Bohemia is a complex and enthralling testament to the power and powerlessness of the individual in challenging times.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Czech Literature, World War II, Contemporary, War

339 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Jill Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School.

Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award 1976 for Unleaving; The Universe Prize, 1984 for A Parcel of Patterns; and the Smarties Grand Prix, 1984, for Gaffer Samson's Luck.

Series:
* Imogen Quy
* Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane

Reviews

[Jaga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anything I would say to criticise this book can be easily refuted by a simple statement - it takes place in a fictional place called Comenia. Thus I cannot say this book is a fairly-tale depiction of a communist country, quite shallow for that matter, because it is Comenia, not Czechoslovakia or Poland. It is so shallow that the collapse of communism is depicted by die-hard image of the fall of the Berlin Wall despite the fact that in Czechoslovakia and Poland communism started to collapse earlier. It is so shallow that every communist here sounds like a propaganda film from the 50s. Also, I cannot say it is impossible for a museum in a castle to be called a museum of bourgeois decadent culture before 1989 because it is a work of fiction. But if it was in Poland I'd laugh hard. I cannot believe there's a serious research behind that book.

The last straw was the astounding description of a refugee being shocked to see London in 1948 and thinking that he skated "unscathed right through the war, suffering nothing except missing his parents." Really? Someone who lost his parents (his mother was in a death camp), house and family factory during the war and was hiding in an attic for 6 years can be moved by a rubble in a foreign city? Also, does the author have any idea was was the scale of war destruction in continental Europe? It cannot be that hard to learn.

I have a piece of advice for anyone interested in Central European history - grab a history book or Kundera and do not waste your time on fiction that is so unchallenging, black-and-white and simplistic it begs to ask why it was created.

ps. 2 stars for writing craft. I still appreciate good writing even if it doesn't venture to look deep in the topic.

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific novel - lucidly and beautifully written from its shifting perspectives across time, from the pragmatic survivor to the revolutionary believer to the disaffected second-generation teenager, with an unexpected emotional payoff tying back to the opening chapter. (And a brave choice to make Countess Anna admit to having been an actual Nazi, rather than just having posed as one for self-protection.)

Vividly evoked landscapes both physical and interior, with skilful little shifts of perception and sympathy; I know Jill Paton Walsh principally as the author of the children's book A Parcel of Patterns, and I wonder with hindsight if, from its style, this was also intended as a 'crossover' book between the children's and adult market. But if so it's a throwback to an era long before children were assumed to be unable to identify with adult protagonists, or to require teenage angst in their literature: this is a straight historical novel, and a very good one.

[Tony Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is in the nebulous category for me...easy to set aside and forget...not bad enough that I feel like someone owes me a time refund I spent on reading it.

It is about Comenia (Czech) nobility having their cross-country estate (part is in Austria) divided and many intermingling Comenian refugees.

Don't track it down, but it won't scar you if it falls in your lap.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb at the top of the page sets the scene for this novel, so I'll start by saying that, from the initial meeting of the lead characters, the novel follows their lives, and those of their descendants, over the period 1945-1990. On one level then, this is a family and neighbours saga, and an entertaining one too. I was fully engaged with the characters and wanted to know what befell them. If I have a criticism of this aspect it is that some of the initial characters almost disappeared as the story progressed.

I had previously read the author's best known book, "Knowledge of Angels", in which a liberal humanist finds himself stranded on an island ruled by a theocracy, that can accept different forms of religious belief but which cannot accept non-belief. Initially I thought this book would be a variation on the same theme, with the theocrats of "Knowledge of Angels" replaced by devotees of communism (who of course generally tolerated no dissent whatsoever). However the philosophical themes within the novel gradually moved on to the topics of free will as opposed to causal determinism, and also of "moral luck". The reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

I can see from the other ratings that reactions to this have been mixed. It certainly has a much lighter feel than "Knowledge of Angels" but I have to say that I really liked it.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Knowledge of Angels, one of my favorite books, this is a book of ideas, tracing several characters from a fictional eastern European country from the time the Soviets drive out the Nazis to the collapse of the Soviet Union & communism. Walsh succeeds in showing us a range of responses to the oppressive state--from a true ideological beliver to a man who's interested only in power, to a woman who just wants to get along despite witnessing horrible events to an exile who wants to return home & another who wants to forget. Still, the characters carry neither the story nor the ideas as compellingly as they did in Knowledge of Angels. It's a good book, but not a great one.

[Emma Woodcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't quite what I expected it to be, but it was excellent, and I enjoyed it very much.

I was anticipating a rather claustrophobic story set in the one house throughout the war. I didn't realise it would actually spend little time in the house, but then is all about the repercussions from that time echoing down the century, and touching lives of all the disparate people and their families.

A good read, and a history lesson.

[Joy Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compassionate, graceful and filled with surprises, the origins of this superb novel lie in the imaginary German-speaking country of Comenia, absorbed into Czechoslovakia during World War 2 and its people subjected to the brutality of Communism. The novel follows the stories of nine characters over the course of four decades, as their lives inter-act. Emotional, heart-rending and moral with the possibility of redemption and hope.

[Moirad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Central Europe from 1945 to 1990 seen from the point of view of aristocratic exiles to Britain and their offspring, communist officials, academics, businessmen, students, all more or less closely related to an estate in a fictional part of Czechoslovakia close to the Austrian border. Somewhat fairytale ending for some characters, but a well told tale.

[Ziad Sabbah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was very tedious to read. The characters were hardly interesting except (maybe) for Jiri who wasn't really that central a character compared to others. Time and time again I had to go through th anti-communist and anti-socialist propaganda in the novel which was filled with typical clichés while trying to romanticize aristocrats and justify the absurd size of their properties. I just had to skim through the last chapters to get over with it.
However I must add that the author's writing style was very good at setting scenes and provoking imagination which could be fulfilling to some but not to me as I am usually more interested in characters, dialogue and how convincing the novel generally is.

Unfortunately the book didn't add much to me which was disappointing because I usually enjoy historical fiction.

[PIETER · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read all four mystery novels about Imogen Q and liked them very much. That led me to the Lord Peter Wimsey 'The Late Scholar' and I liked that as well. Thinking I found Jill Paton Walsh's writing intelligent, literary and absorbing I moved on to A Desert in Bohemia and quickly thought I had made a mistake. I didn't like the first two chapters at all. The strange geography and language, unusual names were offputting. But luckily I pressed on and the characters and story developd beautifully. The chapters progress chronologically covering forty-five years, character by character until you are really interested in the outcomes of each. I felt very fulfilled by the ending. Unlike other of Walsh's books this not a murder mystery but a true novel. I recommend it.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading Knowledge of Angels when it first came out, and finding it well-written but a bit preachy. There's an obvious common feature here -- both books are set in made-up places with oppressive belief systems. I don't really see why the place had to be made-up here -- it could perfectly well have been set in a real part of Czechoslovakia.

It was a bit patchy, but overall I enjoyed reading it. I felt the different stories, though clearly connected, were a bit rushed -- she tried to cram too much in, and it might have been better to tell the stories of only three or four characters in detail, with the others as peripheral characters. I particularly felt that she galloped through Frantisek's life at a rather blistering pace, and he was only really there as a foil for Pavel. She gets a bit heavy-handed with the philosophy at times, notably with Rachel's lecture on moral luck. And she isn't really saying anything startlingly new about Communism or the moral choices people had to make in war and its aftermath. Indeed many of her characters border on caricatures.

Having said that, I think the interaction between Pavel and Rachel was my favourite part of the book. She avoided cliché or a predictable conclusion here, and I loved the last paragraph of this section:

There had indeed been nothing doing between Rachel and Pavel Bansky ... Except that each of them had loved the other in a bleak and dangerous hour. Except that no proper account could ever be given of the life of either of them without mentioning the other. An effect cooler and more durable than love.

The ending of the book as a whole, though, was just too neat and "nice", which I thought was a shame -- I'd have liked something a bit more open-ended between Anna and Nadezda.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be reading this again. The interconnected stories, each based around a different character, were individually absorbing, and combined to give an impression of survival techniques in (a fictional version of) post war Europe. I was most taken with the initial story of Eliska, and her peasant(?) stolidity; and with the discussion of 'moral luck' ('the moral judgements we make .. are quite often not based entirely on the part of our actions that we can control, but are commonly based also on outcomes').

Very readable, with credible characters and involving dilemmas.
____
Update on second reading: somehow seemed 'thinner' on a second read - the linear story line helps make it flow, but perhaps also the lengthy time period made the pace too rapid? It seemed a little painful to 'drop' characters, this time round. I was more frustrated by Eliska's silence (though I found her limitations entirely credible), and by the fading of Count Michael's story as he aged.

I still think there are some neat insights, and some powerful scenes.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the thing I liked best about this book was the quasi-non-linear (?) short stories concerning connected lives, and yet together these stories aren't a collection, but a novel. I wish I had read it before visiting the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. Of course, that was my whole reason for picking it up in the first place!

I find it oddly interesting that the last two novels I have picked up at the library have had this structure. I have about half of the last chapter of Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples to finish before I take these back. And the only thing I knew they had in common was being in the back of the author name organization of the fiction stacks... Before Welty and Walsh, I had been reading too many Adams, Byatts, and Butlers. ;)

[Bill Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Desert in Bohemia follows the fortunes of several families from the imaginary country of Comenia (which had been absorbed into Czechoslovakia during WWII). It starts in 1945, as the Nazis are fleeing and the Communists are taking over, and ends in 1990, about a year after the Communist government falls.

At first I thought the story didn't make that much sense. As I began to understand how the stories were intertwined, however, I became fascinated.

This is a story of what happened to people and families, not an analysis of the rise and fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Major historical events are the backdrop, not the story. In the end, I really liked the story.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole this book was good but there were a couple of things I didn't like about it. For one, the transitions between the "chapters" was a bit choppy in places and another is that some of the events in the book did not make sense. But, along with the bad there many more good things. I thought that the book has a great message about communism in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. So while this ins't the best book I've ever read it was pretty good.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this as much as I recall enjoying Jill Paton Walsh's previous novel, Knowledge of Angels. But still there is something about her writing that I like. I got a little bogged down at points but am glad I finished. It is about being exiled from home, about the depredations of first the Nazis and then the Communists on a fictional East European country and a group of interconnected characters.

[Milton Brasher-Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had this book on my shelf for a long time. I bought it because her other book, A Knowledge of Angels, is one of my favorite novels. This one was good, but it didn't pull me as much as the other. To say it is a Cold War story sells it short; it is a novel of ideas, specifically the creative tension between free will and determinism. It was worth the read. Gave me things to think about.

[Riki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book because it was different than any book I'd read before. I also really enjoyed the fact that it spanned several generations and historical events. A great read for the lover of historical fiction!

[Foreign]

Dutch editor: Lolies van Grunsven

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Adult WWII shadowed book of intense relationships to moral values, intellectual positions, status and power, and warm personal obligation and commitment.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dramatic but imagery is powerful. Favorite book as a teenager.

[Geraldine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was lovely, different stories all woven into one. Probably the ending was a bit too neat is my only criticism

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this novel, which I read about 10 years ago. I still have a vivid image in my head of the opening scene she created.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first the book was really well written and enjoyable but with the romances that occurred towards the end for some of the characters, the narrative lost my interest and a lot of credibility.

[Candee Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep very good!!

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lent from Pernilla.

[Martha]

too long for plot