This novel is about Canadians of Czech background; it says much both about the immigrant experience in Canada, a country mostly peopled by immigrants, and about life in Prague, Czech Republic. This book explores Prague from a different angle than the viewpoint of the young expatriates who went there in the 1990s. This "Prague as the New 1920s Paris" theme is what most authors writing in English about the Cz ...Full description
This novel is about Canadians of Czech background; it says much both about the immigrant experience in Canada, a country mostly peopled by immigrants, and about life in Prague, Czech Republic. This book explores Prague from a different angle than the viewpoint of the young expatriates who went there in the 1990s. This "Prague as the New 1920s Paris" theme is what most authors writing in English about the Czech Republic now focus on. In this novel, the themes are rather faith, belonging, and the strong cultural tension between the Old World and the New, as well as a sense of dual identity. The main character and narrator is Richard Zweimann, who lives in Toronto in 1998, but has Czech heritage from his mother, who was Jewish and left Prague in 1937. The secondary narrator is Jiri Novak, born Czech but also something else: he is dark-skinned and often taken to be Romany (Gypsy). The dualism and contradiction at the heart of the human character is expressed vividly as a result of their perspectives, producing a finely woven and thoughtful novel.