She may not have written the novel she came to America to write twenty years ago, but at least she has become a widely respected, sought-after translator of novels other Czechs have written in their native, reader-restrictive Czech. About life in Czechoslovakia, which they are too committed or too fearful or otherwise unable to leave for a distant, reputedly free country, where a different sound reality assails the exiled writer’s language and new images produce a different story. Original text from Fat Skeletons by Ursule Molinaro (1993).