A Race to Freedom

The Mira Slovak Story

By: David Williams

Narrated by: Brian Callanan

Mira Slovak was born in Czechoslovakia and endured both the Nazi occupation and the brutal Russian liberation. He joined the Czech Air Force, rising to captain by the age of 21.

When he could no longer tolerate life under the Communists, he hijacked an airliner and flew across the Iron Curtain to freedom. He went to work for the CIA and was eventually sent to the US and given a job as Bill Boeing, Jr.'s, personal pilot.

When Boeing began racing hydroplanes in the late 1950s, Mira was his driver. During his 10-year career as a hydroplane driver, he won many races and two national championships. He met presidents and dated movie starlets.

After a serious hydroplane accident, Slovak switched to airplanes, where he won another national championship. When he retired from racing, he became a stunt pilot and public speaker and talked about the value of freedom and how we should value it above everything else.

He outlasted communism, and when it collapsed in 1990, he returned to his home, only to realize his true home was and always would be the US.

©2018 David D. Williams (P)2018 David D. Williams

A great story!

Brain Callanan does an amazing job capturing all of the emotion and intensity of this incredible, but true story.

A must read

A great story very well told! And the narration does it justice. It's one of those stories you don't want to put down.

An incredible story

Mira seems like he lead three lives. Well worth the listen. Tragic and laugh out loud funny, so damn good. Read the book.

Amazing story of an amazing man

Mora's story is absolutely incredible and bigger than life. The book is well written and, for the most part, it is well read. I did find some of the narrator's "voices" odd but overall it didn't take away from how good the story is

What an amazing life

There are people who do a lot with their lives but Mira would make most people think 'I could have done more', he took on challenge after challenge and thrived on it. His determination to make the most of every opportunity made his life very interesting to hear about.

I liked the first third of the book best, the part covering his early life, the rest is good too but I felt there was too much detail at times. I'm not particularly interested in what lane he was in for each boat race, his qualifying or average lap speeds and this is included for every race and not just for him but for other competitors as well, this aspect had me wanting to fast forward to skip it and get to the more interesting parts, I sure other people would disagree and love this detail, but it wasn't a positive for me.

The narration is excellent, great character voices and the accents are well done. The pace and tone of the delivery worked well for the story.

I received a free copy of this book from the author and/or narrator and/or publisher and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.

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