This collection of essays by one of the most distinctive newspaper commentators, Martin M. Šimečka, offers incisive insights into the social and political life of independent ia and its modern identity. The role of the “enemy of the state,” forced upon him by the powers-that-be both under communism and in the early days of ia’s independence, provides him with a unique perspective on the country as a whole and on its key issues, such as coming to terms with the legacy of totalitarianism, and also on more recent challenges such as the migration crisis and the role of ia in the Euro-Atlantic community. Martin M. Šimečka is a rebel as well as a comforter, provocateur and thinker, questioner and narrator but, first and foremost, he is a genuine intellectual of the kind that is rare in Central Europe.
