I had about five thousand dollars all up when I arrived in Prague, enough to keep me going while I figured out what to do about work. I had that glorious feeling you get when you’ve taken your first step on an exciting journey – fresh and new – a feeling that everything would turn out well. A feeling that lasted all the way out of the airport…until I found myself in a shuttle bus driving further and further away from the gorgeous city into light industrial suburbs.
Rachael Weiss feels she’s a disappointment to her parents – to her mother because she’s unmarried, and to her father because she is not an orthodontist. Instead, she’s a writer, so she figures it’s time to escape the family and head off on an adventure. She will go to Prague in search of her Bohemian roots, stay in her father’s apartment there and write the great Australian novel. She might even fall in love with a handsome Czech man.
Me, Myself and Prague is Weiss’s account of her year in Prague as she experiences the highs and lows of living in a post-Communist country where she knows nobody and does not speak the language. With a blend of humour, honesty and self-exploration, Weiss takes the reader into her life, experiencing the twists and tones and cheering as she gets to know – and like – herself.
Me, Myself and Prague: An Unreliable Guide to Bohemia, by Rachael Weiss
Allen & Unwin, 2008
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