Rock 'n' Roll - by Tom Stoppard (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"One of the great political plays in the English language."--Sunday Times (UK)

It is 1968, and the world is ablaze with rebellion. Clutching his prized collection of rock albums, Jan, a Cambridge graduate student, returns to his homeland of Czechoslovakia just as Soviet tanks roll into Prague. When security forces tighten their grip on artistic expression, Jan is inexorably drawn toward a dangerous act of dissent. Back in England, Jan's volcanic mentor Max, a communist Marxist, faces a crisis of his own as his cancer-stricken wife Eleanor, and then his free-spirited daughter Esme, witness the breakdown of his ideals. Winner of the Evening Standard's Best Play Award, Rock 'n' Roll moves between Cambridge and Prague, where lives spin and intersect with history until an unexpected reunion draws together what was worth the fight: the possibility of freedom and love.

Review Quotes

Praise for Rock 'n' Roll:

"So flush with feeling that it never seems to stop trembling . . . Stoppard locates the very rhythm of life . . . [His] most emotionally generous play."--New York Times

"[An] extraordinary, epic drama of politics, persecution, and protest."--Evening Standard

"Astonishing . . . There is an energy, rawness, and passion here one doesn't associate with the elegant and witty Stoppard, passages of unbuttoned emotion that go straight to the heart . . . This new piece smells, well, of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll."--Daily Telegraph

"Astonishing . . . Touches on so many themes, registers its lament at the erosion of freedom in our society and yet leaves you cheered by its wit, buoyancy and belief in the human spirit."--The Guardian

About the Author

Tom Stoppard is the author of such seminal works as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, Travesties, and the trilogy The Coast of Utopia. His screen credits include Parade's End, Shakespeare in Love, Enigma, Empire of the Sun, and Anna Karenina.