City, Sister, Silver

Winner of the Egon Hostovsky Prize as the best Czech book of the year, this epic novel powerfully captures the sense of dislocation that followed the Czechs' newfound freedom in 1989. More than just the story of its young protagonist--who is part businessman, part gang member, part drifter--it is a novel that includes terrifying dream scenes, Czech and American Indian legends, a nightmarish Eastern European flea market, comic scenes about the literary world, and an oddly tender story of the love between the protagonist and his spiritual sister.