I recently read a really engaging book, Prague by Arthur Phillips. A great first novel set, actually, in Budapest in the early 90s. I could relate to the characters and their experiences in several ways. First of all I visited Europe in 1992 after graduating form the University of Washington and I went to Eastern Europe-specifically Prague and Budapest. I had entertained ideas of teaching English in Prague, but after grad school the ability to make enough to pay off that loan was in question. Having lived abroad for several years I can understand the sense of adventure and opportunity living abroad offers romantic types as well.

This edition was a reading group edition with an interview with the author and discussion question. One
question asks why the novel is called Prague if it takes place in Budapest. His answer is:

”The novel is named not for a city, but for an emotional disorder. Milan Kundera wrote a marvelous book called Life Is Elsewhere (set in Prague, incidentally) that touches on the same idea: if only I were there, or with her, or doing that, or born fifty years earlier, then I would be where the action is. So for some expatriates living in Budapest, Prague felt like the place to be. Had those same people been in Prague, Budapest would have seemed like their paradise misplaced…” from A Conversation With The Author

I really liked Life is Elsewhere, too, Kundera is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I feel as though I sometimes suffer form this disorder as well…Paris in the 20s/Weimar Germany in the 30s before the Nazis took power/New York in the 50s/etc… But I do think “Life Is Here” in Tokyo-there is a lot of action going on, but others would say it is Shanghai. So one of the main ideas in the novel is that of the idealized past nostalgia for an ear one didn’t live in. But there’s more, the quest for finding oneself that sometimes involves others, the fragility/difficulties of relationships and more. A very thought provoking and entertaining novel.