Book Launch: Bridge of Spies, or My Journey from Hell to Freedom
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: November 6, 2023, 18:00 – 20:00
The book Most špionů aneb má cesta z pekla ke svobodě (Bridge of Spies, or My Journey from Hell to Freedom) demonstrates an unusual strength of will and mental power, which should not be lacking even in our times, full of unconcealed efforts to establish a new totalitarianism. It will be “baptised” by Jiří Gruntorád, samizdat publisher and director of the library Libri Prohibiti, and moderated by its editor, journalist Adam Drda.
The biographical narrative begins in 1969, when the book’s author and main character in one involuntarily falls into a military counterintelligence trap. He only manages to free himself by escaping to the West, but he dares to make a risky move after emigrating. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out and he ends up in the worst communist prison, in Valdice. There he befriends, among others, Ivan M. Jirous, but also finds himself in the unpleasant company of the most hardened criminals.
The suspenseful story builds up to the point when the author’s mother manages to stir up a number of organisations and politicians in the West, including US President Reagan, and Jaroslav Javorský is included in the exchange of spies on the famous Bridge of Spies in Berlin (made famous by the film of the same name starring Tom Hanks). There he is exchanged for the Czechoslovak intelligence spy Karel Köcher, who managed to infiltrate the FBI and whose exposure in 1984 caused an unprecedented scandal.