This historical novel is a cautionary tale intended to emphasize how history repeats in liberty's battle against tyranny. It spans four dramatic timeframes of the French Revolution's "reign of terror," the American Civil War, the Prague Spring Uprising in the height of the cold war, and concludes in the desperate Iranian Revolution, which ushered in an age of terrorism and war on freedom.
The saga chronicles the genealogy of a French family which escapes the guillotines of Paris to live in Prague, Bohemia, in the 1800s. From there, the story morphs into the struggle of one of this same family's French/Czech descendants who immigrated to America, as he fought in the Battle of Shiloh. The storyline returns to the days in Prague, 1968, as an "Arab Spring" phenomenon occurred to overthrow their oppressive rule, only to be followed by a new "reign of terror." The final segment of the book takes the reader to the streets of Tehran, Iran, as a repeat of the revolt against a monarchy, as in France, resulted in mayhem and violence.
The book is a thus a cautionary tale for the days we live in. Finally, there is an emotional, personal study of survival despite oppression, which those persecuted under tyranny learned. The repeated character of Pierre, Pjeter, and Peter tells of this family's eventual escape to freedom. Uniquely, the story is told by the Statue of Liberty herself, as she narrates the saga on the morning of September 11, 2001.
