First published 2003
Scott Price arrives in Prague in the early 1990s, drawn like countless other young Americans to the newly liberated city. He finds work teaching English and joins a community of expatriates who drink, debate, and drift through the historic streets. Scott becomes entangled with Emily Oliver, a fellow American who seems to embody everything he seeks in this romantic foreign setting. But Prague proves more complex than the expats imagine. The Czechs they encounter view these young foreigners with mixture of curiosity and skepticism. Scott discovers that reinventing yourself in a new country requires more than geographic distance from home. As relationships shift and illusions crack, he must confront what he actually wants from this experience abroad. The novel captures the particular moment when Prague attracted waves of Western visitors seeking authenticity and adventure in post-Cold War Eastern Europe.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, identity-crisis
Setting: Prague
Period: 1990s
Hardcover · Schoeffling + Co.