The Children's Block

  PEGASUS BOOKS

  DISTRIBUTED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER

  WWW.PEGASUSBOOKS.COM

  THE CHILDREN’S BLOCK

  Pegasus Books, Ltd.

  148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2020 by Otto Kraus

  First published by Ebury Press in 2019

  First published as Smoke Is my Brother in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere as The Painted Wall in 1993

  First Pegasus Books hardcover edition April 2020

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

  Jacket design: Brock Book Design Co. / Charles Brock

  Cover photo: Georg Kristiansen / Alamy Stock Photo

  Bird illustrations: Annie Sauvage / Creative Market

  Daisy illustrations: Brock Book Design Co. / Charles Brock

  ISBN: 978-1-64313-328-7

  ISBN-13: 978-1-6431-3396-6 (ebook)