Story:

The State Security officers arrested me and my friends in the morning of February 25, 1971, on the day of the ‘February victory of the working people’. We were put in detention on remand. They searched our homes and seized books and documents. They found my short story ‘My Brother Kain’ which was published in the Brno magazine ‘Kurýr’ and which was inspired by the invasion of the occupying armies. I was charged and sent to prison in January 1972. My novel ‘Reconstruction’ which I started to write after being released from prison is based on the environment of Czechoslovak prisons. I used to hide the finished pages in a siphon bottle in my pantry as I feared that the State Security could find them. Later, I handed the manuscript to a trustworthy friend. Unfortunately, he was not as trustworthy as I thought.

Ivan Binar