Kafka's House

Do you know this old joke about the Russian president traveling abroad? The one where the custom officer asks him: "Occupation?" and the Russian president responds, "No, just visiting." But for fifty years, Russia has not just visited. In August of 1968, Russia invaded Czechoslovakia. In February of 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. In February of 2022, Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine. In "Kafka's House", ten-year-old Silvia Marcu lives in the magical world of fairy tales, sheltered from the traumatic events Romania goes through during the nineteen-sixties. As the events of 1968 unfold, she is assailed by questions no one, not even her parents, can answer. With imagination and candor, Silvia embarks on a miraculous journey that reveals that the ordinary people around us hold the key to our most puzzling questions...