First published 2015
Twenty-two-year-old Tee arrives in Prague carrying the weight of his uncle's recent suicide and the trauma of 9/11. He believes that crossing an ocean will let him reinvent himself and escape the uncomfortable similarities he sees between himself and his adoptive father. Prague draws him into the orbit of Pavel Picasso, a painter known for his revolutionary work, and Katka, Pavel's magnetic wife. Tee also meets Pavel's business partner, a towering American expatriate. As these relationships deepen, Tee must navigate his identity as both mixed race and adopted while living as an outsider in a city steeped in folklore and history. The city faces an impending flood that arrives once every century, and Tee finds himself questioning where he belongs in a world that feels simultaneously foreign and familiar.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century, adoption, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Prague
Period: 21st-century
236 pages · Hardcover · Little A
Content warnings: suicide