As if we were going to die today

This seminal book by the poet Miloš Doležal about the life, priesthood and martyr's death of the Číhošť parish priest, P. Josef Toufar, is driven by an urgent desire to understand who Josef Toufar was and what preceded the final act of his fate. The author does not conceive this comprehensive biographical portrait as a cold historical treatise; it is not lacking in immediacy or humour, yet it does not stray one step from the demand for absolute documentary fidelity. The whole is also a thoroughly rendered chronicle of life in a Czech village in the first half of the 20th century.