The Miracle Game

Smiricky, from "The Engineer of Human Souls", is a witness to an event, which the Catholic townspeople insist is a miracle, but the Communist Party denounces as a fraud. A priest dies under interrogation. Twenty years later the case is reopened and Danny is drawn into the investigations. From Publishers Weekly This big, lush political novel spans 20 years of recent Czech history, culminating in the Prague Spring and the Russian invasion of 1968. Shortly after the war, Danny Smiricky, the cynical hero of Skvorecky's novel The Engineer of Human Souls , is present--although dozing--in a rural Bohemian church when a statue of St. Joseph moves on its pedestal, seemingly of its own volition. The Catholic clergy call it a miracle, but the Communist secret police conduct their own investigation. Alleging that the event was a fraud, they torture and murder the attending priest. In the more liberal political climate of the late '60s, Smiricky sets out to help a crusading journalist solve the mystery; the novel is loosely structured as a detective story, complete with clues and false trails. But Smiricky's real role is devil's advocate, standing aside from the unfolding drama of modern histor