Praga Piccola

September 2012, 436 pages

Available material: English sample

Fiction based on the diary entries of Bertold Neuman (1900–1992), a patriot of the Prague district of Libeň, the son of an engineer at the legendary Praga car factory. Is it fiction or reality? With Urban, the reader never knows. In any case, this book is definitely different: no ingenious murders, no thrilling sex scenes, no conspiracies, or the clever use of thriller motifs under the surface of a playful mystery – just a direct, chronological narrative that builds to a boil as it retells a “personal history,” from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire to World War II. “Speak, Memory” indeed – but does it speak true?