Loss of Innocence (Jew in Communist Prague) (v. 1)
In Czechoslovakia in 1950 a young boy and his father spy a  cicada while on a picnic in the woods. The father notes that the  insect doesn't trust humans: "They're not completely wrong. There  are children who put them in cages. Then they stop singing and die  very quickly. They can't stand to be locked up," he says. Two  months later, without any warning and with precious little cause, the  father is arrested for his supposed counterrevolutionary activities;  in reality he is arrested because of the state's anti-Semitic  resentment. Thus begins Vittorio Giardino's extraordinary masterpieceA Jew in Communist Prague. It is the story of Jonas Finkel, a  boy who grows up all too soon; cares for his frantic, grieving mother;  and fights off wave after wave of prejudice. There is sincerity in  every one of Giardino's lines. He writes, "I spent hours trying  to write down, in a few words, a simple and honest presentation of  Jonas Finkel's story, but it just got increasingly difficult."  The result of his careful work is well worth any reader's time.