In Czechoslovakia in 1969 during the authoritarian Soviet occupation, 17-year-old Pavol persuades two of his friends, Štěpán and Tomáš, to help him write a letter of protest to the government. When they fail to deliver their message, though, Pavol publicly self-immolates. His act turns the government’s suspicious eyes on Štěpán, a star hockey player who is kicked off his team for suspected “homosexual activity” and tortured for information; Tomáš, who is autistic (undiagnosed) and the son of a cruel party member; and Pavol’s pregnant girlfriend, Lída, who lives with her alcoholic father, Ondřej, and would like to flee the country to protect her unborn child. As their situations grow more desperate, Lída, Štěpán, and Tomáš hatch a daring and dangerous plan to escape across the river to Austria. Gripping and intense, this novel delves deeply into the lives, emotions, and dreams of three young people who are trapped in a violently oppressive society.  (Age 14 and older)

Three teens struggle to carve out futures for themselves under a totalitarian regime.

Czechoslovakia, 1969

Seventeen-year-old Pavol has watched his country's freedoms disappear in the wake of the Soviet Union's invasion. He's seen his own dreams disappear too. In a desperate, fatal act of protest against the oppressive new government, he sets himself on fire in public, hoping to motivate others to fight for change.

Instead, Pavol's death launches a government investigation into three of his closest friends. Štěpán finds his Olympic hockey ambitions jeopardized and must conceal his sexual orientation from authorities who could use it against him. Tomáš has already been accused of “antisocial” behavior because he struggles to follow the unwritten rules of everyday interactions, and now he must work even harder to meet the expectations of his father, the regional leader of the communist party. And aspiring film director Lída, Pavol’s girlfriend, is pregnant with his child, which brands her a traitor by association and upends all her plans.

With their futures hanging in the balance, all three must decide whether to keep struggling to survive in the country Pavol died hoping to save . . . or risk a perilous escape to the other side.