A Season Forgotten

About the Book

In April 1989 a series of citizen uprisings began throwing off the yoke of communism in Eastern Europe. In Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany and Bulgaria, dictators were forced to abdicate – all bloodlessly. Then came Romania. During the week leading up to Christmas, students and factory workers took to the streets. So did dictator Nicolae Ceasusescu’s tanks, armored personnel carriers, soldiers and secret police. Blood soon was staining the streets of cities across the nation. Determined protesters would be shot, bayoneted, crushed – with thousands killed or wounded. Terror and torture gave way to courage and an abiding yearning for freedom in a season forgotten elsewhere around the world.

About the Author

Of Mike Johnson’s seven books, six are meticulously researched historical novels. In them Johnson’s aim is giving readers a sense of “really being there” as history unfolds. Toward that end Johnson has traveled widely. Places he has visited where travelers seldom go include Timisoara, Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Singapore’s highest point, England’s Royal Military Academy, Colmar, France’s early books vault, the ruins of the one remaining gas chamber at Auschwitz, the University of Warsaw’s history department, the vast wine cellars beneath the French villages Ribeauville and Riquewihr, the mile-high castle overlooking Ribeauville, the Members Tea Rooms in Britain’s Houses of Parliament – and more. Johnson’s other book – Mascot, Minister, Man of Steel – pays tribute to the human spirit’s resilience by telling the story of kids he once knew who later faced serious adversity with courage and grace. Johnson can be emailed at bleedgreen67@msn.com.