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The Visible World | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Slouka
Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 7095
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 1846270863
EAN: 9781846270864
ASIN: 1846270863
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Dreamy tragic love tale December 6, 2008
I found The Visible World to be an entracing and tragic tale of lost love, war and its aftermath. 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.
Slow September 9, 2008
I found this book very hard going. Not one of my best reads. The story of a man who returns to his parents Czech homeland.Here he discovers the story of his Mothers true love during the war. Very sad and touching in places, and lots of references to the war. I only really enjoyed the last section of the book.
 Memories from Another World August 29, 2008
The story itself is not remarkable, although it is intriguing. A young man's childhood memories as he tries to piece together the story of his parents' past. Memories of his American childhood, interspersed with tales of wartime horrors and escapades in Czechoslovakia, a real love affair that's doomed from the beginning, plus the memories of those living in exile as a result of the war. What does make this novel remarkable is the way in which it's written - the reading of it can be likened to partaking of a feast! Mark Slouka's use of the English language is quite wonderful - like listening to a magnificent piece of music being beautifully played. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!
vivid memories of second generations July 29, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is not for readers who expect a straight narrative, but for everyone who enjoys an emotive and beautiful writing. For some reason i thought it was an autobiography as the vivid images of central European culture, people and places were so true and beautifully described. It felt like flicking through old photographs of a family that you did not really know, but whose story you had the privilage to peep into. Very very lovely.
 Unmissable June 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I simply cannot understand the negative reviews here, unless they have been written by youngsters who are not yet sophisticated enough to appreciate it. This is an absolutely magnificent book that works on several levels. Unlike many novels today, it is beautifully written but is also incredibly easy to read and tells a gripping and tragic story. The first part is a memoir with the narrator telling of his childhood growing up in the USA as the child of immigrants who have not told him everything about their past. As an adult he travels to Prague and discovers some of the facts for himself. The third part is an imagining - if you like - of what his parents' story was.
Unlike some other reviewers, the fact that this was a Richard & Judy choice might actually have put me off if I had not read The Conjuror's Bird, one of their previous choices and also a brilliant book.
If you like The Visible World I would suggest you read The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn. It is non fiction but the two have a lot in common.
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