Author(s): Rachael Weiss

General

This is the story of a freewheeling Aussie girl who gives up her life in Sydney to return to Prague, her ancestral home, intending to live there for the rest of her life. In fact, she lasted there for three years before visa restrictions and disillusionment caused her to leave the country. Even though she is at times exasperated by the petty bureaucracy and customs of a country that values beer and potatoes above everything else, and even though she is frustrated by her attempts to master a very difficult language (only spoken by 10 million people), her efforts to engage both socially and romantically with the locals are wonderfully funny. Social embarrassment and mortification rub shoulders with the kind of bureaucratic absurdity that inspired Kafka in former times. 'The Thing About Prague 'is a surprising and generous memoir full of warmth and Rachael's unstoppable sociability...