The New York Times called it “indelible,” National Public Radio “so new and inventive, it feels like a milestone of both journalism and creative fiction,” Victor Sebestyen at the Spectator said it was “one of the funniest books I have read — and one of the shrewdest — about what it was like to live under fascism and communism.” Mariusz Szczygiel‘s Gottland: Mostly True Stories from Half of Czechoslovakia has been getting great praise from critics and readers since its release last month.

In this video, Mariusz introduces you to a few of the main narratives of the book, among them the stories of Marta Kubišová, the Czech pop star banned by the regime for her anti-communist views, and the world’s largest statue of Stalin, which towered over Prague for a few years in the 1950s and 60s. Spoiler alert: Stalin gets blown up!