The Magic Lantern

Garton Ash was an interested spectator, and at times close to being a participant, in the revolutions that swept central and Eastern Europe. Already knowing the terrain, the leading personalities and the prevailing political and intellectual currents, he describes and interprets the dramatic events of 1989 with a sure touch and literary flair unmatched by other Western observers. About half of the book is devoted to the revolution in Czechoslovakia, "the most delightful of all."