Prose
Martin and Tomas leave Prague on Christmas Day for “that other country.” Although their destination is the mountains, their departure has been initiated by a search for their own identity–people in their country have become alike, losing their individuality and becoming products of a totalitarian regime. The pair become the guests of a high school teacher, but Martin falls in love with the teacher’s daughter only to lose her in a police suppression, and the Other Country is revealed as a merciless machine of oppression that throws its people into despair.
Praise
“Vopěnka manages this material with a deft and compellingly simple control of sentences that is reminiscent of both Kafka and Kundera. The book is really superb, as is Bryson’s translation.”
—Choice