So Many Heroes is a book that chronicles the events in Prague leading to the Soviet invasion of the Czech capital in 1968, an event that occurred the week I was born. It is written in diary form by Alan Levy who, at the time, was the only accredited American journalist in Czechoslovakia. I found a copy of the book while browsing in a bookshop in Vienna's 9th district earlier this week. The book reminds me of the diary of the October revolution by another American journalist: John Reed's Ten days that shook the world. Alan Levy's account is deeper intellectually and unlike John Reed's book ( which had an intro by Lenin himself) was only distributed underground at the time.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, a novel by Milan Kundera, is also set during the Prague Spring, the period chronicled by Levy's book. It also depicts the Soviet occupation and the dictatorial control of the population. I will forever be haunted by the real-life film clips of the tanks entering Prague that were fused in the film version of Kundera's classic novel, a film I have seen countless times.

After a number of years in Vienna, Alan Levy returned to Prague after the Velvet Revolution and became the editor-in-chief of The Prague Post. Following his death two years ago, Lisa Frankenberg - publisher of The Prague Post - wrote this about Alan Levy:

There was an inevitability about the joining of Prague, Alan Levy and The Prague Post. Prague, the city of arts, of political tumult, of vibrant change, with its history of high honor to the written word. Alan, the indefatigable and enthusiastic force of free journalistic truth. The Prague Post, with our mission to report and interpret, to quote Alan: "The world we live in and the world around us."

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