This book needs a long review to do it justice but I don't think most people read long reviews to I'll try to keep it short. I think the author's intent was to write a literay novel that retells a historical event that he cares passionately about while giving the reader much food for thought about how history is remembered and revised when it is retold in books and films.
He unravels the true story of two young resistance fighters, a Czech and a Slovak, who are recruited in London to parachute into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and assassinate the man known as the Butcher of Prague, Reinhard Heydrich. Interwoven with this highly detailed and suspenseful story are Binets first person thoughts and the decisions he makes during the writing process. He seems to be commenting on what he sees as the dubious nature of historical fiction as a genre, the human tendency to create preferred stories from historical events in order to make a better story and whether or not any re-teller of history can be totally reliable, even eye witnesses. These interludes were distracting at times but mostly thought provoking. The historical events he describes are alternately horrific and inspiring and totally unforgettable.
He unravels the true story of two young resistance fighters, a Czech and a Slovak, who are recruited in London to parachute into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and assassinate the man known as the Butcher of Prague, Reinhard Heydrich. Interwoven with this highly detailed and suspenseful story are Binets first person thoughts and the decisions he makes during the writing process. He seems to be commenting on what he sees as the dubious nature of historical fiction as a genre, the human tendency to create preferred stories from historical events in order to make a better story and whether or not any re-teller of history can be totally reliable, even eye witnesses. These interludes were distracting at times but mostly thought provoking. The historical events he describes are alternately horrific and inspiring and totally unforgettable.
