; 18 oz.; 224 pages; HC w/DJ 1st US ED Unread 1 date stamp top edge DJ 1 rip and shelf wear. Klima's acclaimed novel, set in Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution in 1989, is about a writer whose work is censored by the state. Forced out of his job, he takes a job as a street sweeper. Despondent because of his situation, he roams the streets with his broom, listening to conversations, brooding on his wartime childhood, and obsessively thinking about his wife and his mistress as he tries to decide to whom his loyalty belongs.