The Suitcase

The Suitcase is a tour-de-force, an imagining of the autobiography of an opportunistic Czech playboy, who avoided legal troubles and subsequently, the Holocaust by moving to Shanghai. There, he joined the fight against fascism, and later continued that struggle in London while his family was murdered in the camps. This narrative, written in the style of a bygone era, will transport readers to a world far different, yet eerily similar to that of the 21st century.

This is the true story of Vladimír George Taussig, a veteran of the Great War whose unfortunate decisions in his native Prague forced him to flee to Shanghai where he fell in with high society-until the Japanese invasion, the beginning of World War II, encroached on the Shanghailanders' rollicking lifestyle. On the other side of the world, his family's lives began to disintegrate when Czechoslovakia was occupied and the horrors of the war reached their doorstep.

From dancing on Shanghai's Bund, to mingling with radio stars in New York City, to speaking out against fascism across Britain, this tale, pieced together from Taussig's letters and other memorabilia, is one of passion and tenacity, weakness and courage, impropriety and decency, lies and truths, exclusion and tolerance, and life and death.