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HE WAS in many ways a quintessential local. She had Czech friends, read Czech books and ate that Bohemian staple, potatoes. But Duong Nguyen Jiraskova, a student who in 2008 began blogging about life in Prague, was also untypical. Brought up in the Czech Republic by Vietnamese parents, she straddled two worlds. She celebrated Christmas and Tet. She used cutlery, but taught friends to handle chopsticks. “Whenever someone asks me where I feel at home,” she wrote, “I never give a one-word answer.”
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One-word answers do not feature in this subtle, lyrical book. Like the denizens of many other cities, Praguers have juggled identities for centuries, even if they have only recently chronicled their efforts online. Chad Bryant concentrates on five fascinating individuals, guiding readers through Czech history along the way.