The Last Palace

Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House

By: Norman Eisen

Narrated by: Jeff Goldblum

A sweeping yet intimate narrative about the last hundred years of turbulent European history, as seen through one of Mitteleuropa's greatest houses - and the lives of its occupants

When Norman Eisen moved into the US ambassador’s residence in Prague, returning to the land his mother had fled after the Holocaust, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture in his new home. These symbols of Nazi Germany were remnants of the residence’s forgotten history, and evidence that we never live far from the past.

From that discovery unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of four of the remarkable people who had called this palace home. Their story is Europe’s, and The Last Palace chronicles the upheavals that transformed the continent over the past century. There was the optimistic Jewish financial baron, Otto Petschek, who built the palace after World War I as a statement of his faith in democracy, only to have that faith shattered; Rudolf Toussaint, the cultured, compromised German general who occupied the palace during World War II, ultimately putting his life at risk to save the house and Prague itself from destruction; Laurence Steinhardt, the first postwar US ambassador whose quixotic struggle to keep the palace out of Communist hands was paired with his pitched efforts to rescue the country from Soviet domination; and Shirley Temple Black, an eyewitness to the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring by Soviet tanks, who determined to return to Prague and help end totalitarianism - and did just that as US ambassador in 1989.

Weaving in the life of Eisen’s own mother to demonstrate how those without power and privilege moved through history, The Last Palace tells the dramatic and surprisingly cyclical tale of the triumph of liberal democracy.

©2018 Norman Eisen (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A deft and fascinating narrative...The Last Palace is steeped in politics, military history, architectural lore and anecdotes.... Mr. Eisen’s easy, fluid style and the richness of his material make for very pleasurable historical reading.” (Wall Street Journal)

“The book’s main characters are captivating. The palace itself has a ghostly allure.” (The Economist)

“Meticulous...fascinating.... Reading this book, you are reminded of the many missed opportunities that the United States and other Western allies had to encourage and assist democracy in Central Europe. It is not clear that we have learned from history as we are once again confronting nationalist, nativist and anti-democratic politicians and movements backed or amplified by Russia in Europe and beyond.” (Washington Post)

A Publishers Weekly, BookPage, and Pen America Best Book of 2018

Great and entertaining story of Czechoslovakia over the past 150 years!

Well researched and entertains from start to finish. You get a history lesson without any boredom involved!

Political History - Prague 1930’s to present

Centered around Villa Petschek the book addresses the political history of Prague from the 1930’s to present day. From the point of view and experience of the author Norman Eisen the US Ambassador to the Czech Republic 2011 - 2014.

Loved it;

The story flowed so well with thoroughness of detail. The stories were really well written. I loved the commentary of Norman’s mother and their sense of humor. Goldblum’s pronunciation of all those European names and languages including Yiddish was wonderful. His narration was great.

One of the best books I have ever read/Listen to.

One Of the best books I have ever read/Listen to, truly a Awesome read it gives you historic reference and family history at the same time. I will read it again, and Again.

Superbly done

Fantastic gathering of data.
Now walking by such institution you can appreciate it’s “existence” !
One of those rare opportunities where you can be the fly on the wall and witness events as they unfolded !
Excellent book.
Truly enjoyed it.

Fascinating historical story, superb narration

This books takes you through over a hundred years of Czech history in a moving and compelling set of intertwined stories. Jeff Goldblum's narration is marvelous.

Fascinating.

This book was fascinating. I expected something more akin to Thomas Harding’s “The House by the Lake” (which is probably one of my top 5 books of all time) in that I expected a biography of the house and it’s inhabitants. While “The Last Palace” is a biography of Otto Petschek’s masterpiece, it’s more about Czechoslovakia and Otto’s palace’s place in it. I’d have loved to have known more about the individuals’ lives within the walls of the palace more that outside it’s walls. That being said, it was an excellent book and I highly recommend it. Now I want pictures of every nook and cranny, including the silverware!

Great book despite goldblum’s narration

Story is great. I just went to Prague and this book enriched the experience. Not even Goldblum’s atrocious narration managed to ruin it. By the way, somebody give him a TUMS. There were parts where it sounded like he needed to burp. When narrating children and women, he sounded like somebody just kicked him in the privates. Every Czech, German, and Hebrew word appeared to give him seizures. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE = just because someone is famous, it does not mean they will be good narrators (the opposite is more likely).

Interesting story - horrible reading

The story itself is good. I’m not sure the last portion adds much to be story.
The problem is the reading. His female voices were horrible. He also sounded like he was yawning or running out of breath. Then there were a few times that a word or phrase seemed to be spliced in.
He enunciated the foreign words well.

Reasonably boring story narrated to make it worse

I was looking forward to reading this book because I know very little about the history of Czechoslovakia. So the first point that needs to be made is that this is not the story of Europe's Turbulence. It is barely a history of Czechoslovakia. The premise is that this is the history of Europe told through the history of the inhabitants of this one palace. It is the story of the man who built the palace, the author's family, the Nazi and then Soviet occupation of the country and of some of the US diplomats who lived in the palace. I felt short-changed on all fronts.

The main bit of information that I took out of it is that an early diplomat fell in love with the palace and through his machinations we, the US taxpayers, are funding the maintenance and upkeep on an obscene 100 room palace to house our diplomats.

As to the narration, it's horrible. Jeff Goldblum reads this novel the way that an adult reads a children' book with exaggerated intonation. His voices for female characters are ridiculous and almost offensive. I hope he sticks to acting. I had to listen at 1.3 speed to get through it.

I did finish the book but didn't really learn much new except about the man who built the house and how he destroyed his family relationships in the process. That's not a particularly unique story among the super-wealthy.