“A love song to Prague....Funny, humane and oddly down-to-earth in ways that its scenario cannot possibly convey. With its lessons in Czech history/culture and interplanetary shenanigans, this zany satirical debut is bursting at the seams and should win many fans.” (Guardian)
Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Prochvozka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first astronaut. When a dangerous solo space mission offers him both the chance at heroism he's dreamt of, and a way to atone for his father's sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown. But in so doing, he leaves behind his devoted wife, Lenka, whose love, he realizes too late, he has sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions.
Alone in deep space, Jakub discovers a possibly imaginary giant alien spider, who becomes his unlikely companion. Over philosophical conversations about the nature of love, life and death, and the deliciousness of bacon, the pair form an intense and emotional bond. Will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth?
Rich with warmth and suspense and surprise, Spaceman of Bohemia is an exuberant delight from start to finish. Very seldom has a novel this profound taken readers on a journey of such boundless entertainment and sheer fun.
”In Kalfar's zany novel . . . the spaceman, the alien, and the rest of the book's extravagant conceptual furniture are merely metaphors for the human-scale issues that are its real concerns, in particular the collapse of Jakub's marriage. That's not to say Kalfar hasn't done his research. There are lovingly detailed passages on life in zero gravity, but all the whizzy space business is harnessed to the basic question of what it means to leave and whether it's possible to come back. The alien acts as a Proustian trigger for Jakub's memories . . . But for all the strangeness of outer space, it is the writing about his home, the place to which he longs to return and perhaps never can, that beats strongest in this wry, melancholy book.” —NY Times Book Review
”The best, most enjoyably heartbreaking, most fun book you'll read this year. On the surface, you'll see affinities with Gary Shteyngart, with The Martian, with Kelly Link. But Jaroslav Kalfar's voice is entirely his own. I beg you: take this strange, hilarious, profound, life-affirming trip into literary outer space.” —Library Journal
(A special thank you to book club member, Elke Richelsen for the suggestion.)