Readers International

menu Readers International

Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia

“Funny, ironic, self-deprecating, hip… and wildly popular” PRAGUE POST

“Brilliant snapshot of modern-day Prague” ALA BOOKLIST

Beata is the drop-out daughter of a sleazy Czech “new millionaire”. In lover after lover she desperately seeks life’s meaning, while embracing a host of causes new to post-communist Central Europe, from ecology to consumerism. Viewegh’s lively satire defines today’s “lost generation” of Czech youth just as The Great Gatsby did for Americans in the 1920s. The novel is also important as a serious exploration of the changed role of the writer in Central and Eastern Europe today. This comical-tragical-sexual tale is told in the best Czech tradition of Milan Kundera, Ivan Klíma, Bohumil Hrabal and Ludvík Vaculík. The author is the most popular and interesting of the new generation of Czech writers.

Cover by Czech artist Jan Brychta.