Good for the soul book! Learn how dreams come true. Heartwarming, tender, meaningful and captivating. Imagine if an 18-year-old girl landed across the iron curtain for the first time…alone. What if that girl went from being a nanny, to a fashion model , to a playboy bunny , to an actress , and from London to Hong Kong, to USA in a full and wonderful life encompassing rock n roll, new business ventures, a family and everything in between? It is not a movie script; this is a real story! Anika Pavel was born Jarmila Kocvarova in communist Czechoslovakia. She bravely ventured across the iron curtain to England for what was intended to be a one-year stay. As her life transpires, she goes from sleeping in phone booths to a Bond girl in the swinging London of the 1960s and 70s. These are the stories of her life and the people she has shared it with. People stories. Heartwarming, tender, meaningful and captivating. In a series of essays, some intimate and small, some touching upon the major historical moments of the twentieth century, Pavel takes us on an unforgettable journey. Pick up your copy today and warm up your heart with those authentic touching stories. This book is exemplary in its voice and writing style. It has a unique voice, and the writing style is consistent throughout. - Writers Digest "Anika Pavel's biography, Encounter with the Future, is a riveting writing through time, documenting an extraordinary climb from a humble beginnings in Communist Czechoslovakia to a life of luxury and fulfilment in the United States. This book must be required reading for anybody who believes in the power of dreams and the durability of the human spirit. Anika Pavel's experience highlights the concept that with hard work, a focus on family, and a sense of humour, everything is possible!" — Twins Reading Books, Goodreads 5-star review "Anika Pavel manages, from her present and sophisticated vantage, to evoke the innocence of youth. In pellucid prose she gives us both a history of transience—from Czechoslovakia to England—and the coming-of-age story of a brave young woman who travels open-eyed." — Nicholas Delbanco, author of Why Writing Matters "The individual essays in story form chronicle this life still in forward motion, and are written with the wit and warmth and perceptiveness which characterize the author herself." — Kristopher Franklin, author of Silvercat and Gravedigger Pavel's engrossing memoir comes in the form of a series of essays, some previously published, but several wholly new. Sharing stories from her childhood in the tumultuous times of what was once Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and '60s, she tells of her perfect timing in obtaining an exit visa to London in 1967, shortly before Moscow ordered all Czech citizen home. A last-minute marriage helped her stay on the western side of the Iron Curtain, where Pavel relished London at its swingingest, working as a model, acting, and "waitressing in an uncomfortable costume and ridiculously high heels" at the Playboy Club—a job that demanded she overcome inhibitions rooted in "Communist propaganda with its unlikely partner, women's lib." In touching yet cannily sophisticated prose, Pavel shares fascinating stories and opinions ("The Beatles-Rolling Stones rivalry was invented by newspapers, but my loyalty skewed toward the Bee Gees"), revealing the funny way she met her American husband, their globe-roving lifestyle, and how she embraced her biggest change yet: settling in the United States to raise their family. She writes movingly of her childhood in Czechoslovakia, where she witnessed food scarcity, limitations on what teachers could teach, the difficulties her mother faced getting cancer medication, and the frustrations her father faced as a business owner—a tailor with seven employees—under an oppressive communist government. Yet all the while, she paints a loving picture of the family she adores and the beautiful country and people that will always be close to her heart. In London, she at times could not appreciate her surroundings, as she "was focused on the day I would embrace my parents." A natural storyteller and shrewd observer, Pavel vividly places readers in each setting and nuanced emotional state, from fear and guilt when her toddler son is injured during a typhoon in Hong Kong to her deep yearning for her parents. Pavel always demonstrates a deep understanding of people, keeping readers engaged across decades, continents, and pages. Takeaway: Moving, incisive memoir of a surprising life after exiting the Iron Curtain. Comparable Titles: Elena Gorokhova's Russian Tattoo , Antje Arnold's The Girl Behind the Wall . Review by Publishers Weekly Tina Brown of Vanity Fair said in an interview that people like to read about other people. The stories in this book are people stories; a chronological, political and social drama running parallel with a rapid coming of age in an unknowrld. In between is a history of a