Sunshine and Sunset. Memories of my son

More about the book

This is the true story of a boy born in 1950, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Life is bleak and hazardous under the communist regime, especially for Jan, because his parents are students and they are not members of the communist party. Despite these problems, his parents’ heroic struggles succeed in raising a sensitive, gifted and fun-loving son who excels in athletics, especially basketball and skiing. He, his parents and the entire nation of Czechoslovakia blossom during the liberalization of the “Prague Spring.” Jan’s father, Jaroslav, who has become an architect, is allowed to go to Los Angeles. However, the democratization of Czechoslovakia is crushed by a communist invasion on August 21, 1968. Seventeen-year-old Jan and his mother escape through the fighting, their small car almost crushed by a Soviet tank. They join Jaroslav in Los Angeles. Jan is invited by Coach John Wooden to play basketball for UCLA; he becomes an orthopedic surgeon, then tragedy strikes.