by David Szalay
First published 2016
A young man stumbles through Prague's suburbs, disconnected and searching. He represents the first of nine men scattered across contemporary Europe, each wrestling with his place in an increasingly globalized world. From working-class veterans to pompous students, from middle-aged failures to wealthy oligarchs, these characters inhabit spaces both familiar and foreign: overdeveloped Alpine villages, roadside stops along Belgian motorways, run-down hotels in Cyprus. Each man exists at a different life stage, progressing from youth's optimism to old age's bitter clarity. Their stories unfold separately yet connect through shared struggles with modern masculinity. As the book moves forward, the protagonists age and the seasons grow colder, building toward a darker understanding of twenty-first-century existence. Szalay renders each character with sharp psychological insight, revealing how contemporary men navigate alienation, ambition, and mortality across borders that feel both distinct and meaningless. The result captures the emotional and physical landscape of modern Europe through intimate portraits of male vulnerability.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, european-literature, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, interconnected-stories
Setting: Belgium, Cyprus, Europe, Prague
Period: 21st-century
378 pages · Kindle Edition · Graywolf Press