Prague Spring

'Masterly and chilling . . . it is very good indeed' Scotsman 'Prague Spring is set in the Czech capital during the exhilarating weeks of 1968 when, before Russian tanks rolled into the city, socialism looked to show a human face. A mismatched student couple from Oxford, James and Ellie, decide on the toss of a coin to visit Prague during their hitch-hiking trip across Europe. There they fall in with a group of young people, including Lenka, a journalist who has just embarked on a relationship with Sam Wareham, a British diplomat. The personal is engulfed by the political as the city faces the Soviet invasion and Sam is dragged unwillingly into a scheme to smuggle a high-profile defector out of the country. Mawer's novels are always rich in intelligence and insight, and Prague Spring is no exception' Sunday Times'Mawer is a superb chronicler of past events in foreign countries, and Prague Spring is a wonderfully atmospheric portrait of the city as well as a political and historical thriller with dashes of espionage. It is as brilliant as anything he has written, which is saying a lot' Marcel Berlins, The Times von Mawer, Simon