The story of Tomas, Tereza and other characters whose lives were changed dramatically by the events surrounding Prague Spring was hard to put down. The Czech sinologist Oldrich Kral is a real-life example of a similar figure.
書中描寫主角湯馬斯、德蕾莎等人因「布拉格之春」事件，生命際遇完全改變的故事，令人低迴不已。在捷克的漢學界，奧．克拉兒卻是一個活生生的例子。