15. Maniny was where Petr probably spent most of his free time. It’s not a location in Prague Holesovice, as the name would seem to suggest, but dead-end river branches and canals framing Rohansky Island—the word “manina” (from the Czech “chodit mani”—indicated a landscape without roads, which one could criss-cross freely, i.e., however one chose). One of the local canals was filled during the war with city rubbish. Gradually, the river branch and all the canals were filled, so that Rohansky Island is in reality no longer an island.

16. Sukkot is the Feast of Tabernacles, a Jewish holiday commemorating the forty years the Jews spent wandering in the desert during which time they dwelled in huts.