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    The Visible World
    The Visible World
    The Visible World
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Visible World

    Written by Mark Slouka

    Narrated by Glen McCready

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Mark Slouka’s novel begins with the child of Czech immigrants to the US, now living in New York, who has been brought up on the folklore of his parents’ homeland. As he grows up he becomes aware that he has never been told what his parents did during the Nazi occupation of Prague. As an adult he makes a journey back to Czechoslovakia and it is only then that he discovers their part in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious ‘butcher of Prague’ and begins to understand his mother Ivana’s unhappiness. Intertwined with this gripping history is a passionate love story, the tragic consequences of which transcend both years and continents.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateSep 1, 2009
    ISBN9789629548124
    The Visible World

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    Reviews for The Visible World

    3.5/5

    10 ratings8 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This is a beautifully written, if not slightly confusing, book. As well as covering three roughly defined periods, the last of which takes the form of a novella in its own right, the narrative also moves forwards and backwards in time at various points, with the main historical anchor being the assassination of top-ranking Nazi Heydrich in 1942.As a result, the book is slow to get going for a while, especially as there are lots of references to something that is only properly revealed in the final section. I didn't mind too much as the writing is so enchanting - I probably wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't!This is one for fans of dreamy, doomed love stories and wartime settings. I read this because I'm going to Prague soon and feel as if I've got to know a part of its history as a result.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Beautifully-written story about memory, history and truth. An American of Czech parentage tries to find out about a mysterious man with whom his mother was in love during the war. The unfamiliarity, for me, of the Czech language simply added to the sense of mystery. It was also a fascinating insight into a period of the history of the Czech Republic that I had no idea about. I do, however, agree with some other reviewers that it was difficult to engage fully with the characters.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Beautifully written, intensely absorbing and moving. Slouka's prose is extraordinary, if almost too rich at certain times. But he tells a great story, truly believable and tragic.
    • 2/5
      Beautiful writing but the plot was a mess - confusing and not clear.
    • 4/5
      This book is like an art gallery. Reading this book made me feel as if I walked along a series of paintings, each picturing a situation, a time frame, a person, a small recollection or memory. All together these pictures make two stories. There is the "real" story, which consists of memories of the youth of the narrator, son of Czech immigrants in the US, focussing especially on his mother, and of his young adult years, when he has migrated to Czechoslovakia and tries to find clues to his mother's story. And there is the fictional story, his mother's story as it could have been. When there is no factual clue to what has long passed and has been buried in silence, only reasoned fantasy and fiction can give meaning to the past, is what the narrator tries to say. A beautiful idea, I think.I loved the descriptions, the little pictures that Slouka draws in each chapter. I appreciated the melancholia of the first and second part of the book, that describe the unsuccessful attempts of the narrator to understand his parents and their history. However, I had troubles getting through the third part of the book, the fictional part about the love story between the mother and a war hero. The distant sketchy style seemed to work for the parts where distance is described, but not for the love story. At not a single moment did I feel this love, did I understand what was the attraction between the two lovers, besides something vaguely physical. The story of Prague in the second world war is interesting enough, and the moral dilemma's described are thought provoking. This made it worth reading on, but I missed the feeling for the characters.
    • 2/5
      I can see what the author was trying to do with this book, and perhaps if I had read it at a different time, or was in a different mood, or re-read it again, I would get it more than I did on this reading. The book is split into three parts (as a child, as a man, a novelisation), with the author telling the story of his mother and her great love affair with a man who wasn't his father, and how that caused her all the issues he was aware of while growing up.

      The first part of the book just takes too long to engage you, the second part is brief and the third part (the novel) is good, but I just didn't feel a lot of affection or a connection with the characters so the emotional conclusion just didn't affect me as much as it seemed to affect some people. I just didn't really care enough to be bothered. The third part of the book does effectively fill in the blanks of earlier in the book, but I just wonder if the story would have benefited from a less unorthodox style of telling the story.

      It's well written (although a little flowery in places) and, as I said, I can see what he was trying to do, but for me he just didn't pull it off successfully.
    • 5/5
      Definitely a page-turner. Not often you find a book that both educates and entertains as well as this one. I'm a tough audience and this book really moved me.A young boy grows up knowing that his mother had a relationship that left a strong impression on her before she married his father. That relationship, and its effects and aftermaths, make up this book's trilogy which goes through (1) the boy's life as he grows up; (2) his return to his parents' homeland to gather more information; and (3) his version of what may have happened. Grab it and read it!
    • 4/5
      I found The Visible World to be an entracing and tragic tale of lost love, war and its aftermath. The tale is told as a partly truthful tale by our narrator who is the child of immigrant parents in the United States. His parents left Czechoslovakia following World War II, eventually settling in the states.The author grows up in a loving household but is aware of some sadness and mystery that permeates his parents life. His mother is melancholic and his father is accepting and protective. Eventually the grown up narrator travels to his parents native land to attempt to understand the past.The second half of the book really shines as the author describes events surrounding the 1942 assassination of Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich and a tragic love story concerning his own mother. The love story is deeply touching and remains engraved in your head and heart long after you finish the book. The prose is elegant, and despite the slow first half, there is something wonderful and worthwhile about this book.