Jill Paton Walsh — A Desert in Bohemia

Black Swan (UK) 2001 Paperback, 331pp. 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. (ISBN: 9780552998642). Good.