This engrossing memoir of an extraordinary woman's life in rural Czechoslovakia through two world wars and the Soviet occupation is testimony to the indomitable spirit of human beings.

When Tonca's son Jara immigrated to America, the 80-year-old woman began to include memories of her early life in letters to him. These letters, embellished with background information provided by Jara, have been smoothly edited by the Sylvia and Kevin Welner. From this marriage of memories emerges a picture of a life of deprivation and brutally hard labor.

Tonca writes of her childhood spent in a single room with her parents and five siblings. Illness and death were constant companions to everyone in the village; Tonca speaks of her mother,who was an invalid for years after the birth of her last child, and of the frequency of suicide in the area.

Educational opportunities were limited, especially for girls, and the grinding poverty forced every family member to work as soon as possible. Tonca writes frankly of jobs as a maid and a farm laborer, often under employers who paid little and provided only the flimsiest shelter and clothing against winter's bitter cold. She continued working menial, difficult jobs to support her two sons and herself after her husband died.

We learn of peasant conscription into the army for WWI and of the apathy of the men toward the Emperor (Czechoslovakia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Nazi brutality and rationing during WWII worsened already difficult conditions, which continued to deteriorate under Communist rule.

Tonca's stark narration heightens the harsh existence she endured and increases our admiration for this indomitable woman who died in 2001 at the age of 96. This lively, absorbing account is more than a single woman's story; it's the story of an entire country and reveals how political events and movements affect ordinary people.