Tightrope Passage is the first book of Ivo Moravec’s second writing career. His first was as a songwriter and children’s writer in his native Czechoslovakia. In 1983, worn down by the restrictions on his artistic and academic lives, he defected with his wife and son to Austria. Tightrope Passage is the story of that defection and his subsequent journey as a refugee to Canada.

Moravec did not brave bullets, barbed wire, or mountain passes, but his story – of a man driven to abandoning his homeland, friends, parents, and security, for an unknown future in an alien world – is riveting nonetheless. Indeed, Moravec is so unprepared for life in the West that when someone in Vienna points out a McDonald’s restaurant he asks, “What do they sell?”

The bulk of Tightrope Passage concerns the author’s months in a run-down refugee hotel in Vienna awaiting processing by the Canadian authorities. It is full of memorable characters, each of whom has engineered an escape and is handling adjustment in his or her own unique way. There are numerous vivid images such as the rope stretching from Vienna to Canada along which the author must walk to begin his new life: the tightrope of the title.

Tightrope Passage offers remarkable insight into the mind of a refugee who can see near-insurmountable obstacles in the most minor bureaucratic hiccup and can spend hours rationalizing the tiniest detail in an attempt to divine the future. For example, Moravec is thrown into a panic at having only two days to prepare for the all-important interview with the Canadian Consul, when he in fact has a month, having misread the letter. There is a genuine excitement in following the family through their psychological and practical struggles and a wonderful sense of joy when the consul grants them Landed Immigrant Status.

This is a passionate, richly told tale that provides an unforgettable look at the life of one pre-Canadian, but should be of interest to all Canadians.