Not long ago John Shirtingquiet young Chicagoan wizard of selfmedicationheld down a beloved job as a barista at Capo Coffee Family a coffee chain and global business powerhouse When he is deemed too passionate about his job he is let go Shirting makes it his mission to return to the frothy Capos fold by singlehandedly breaking into a new market and making freshly postcommunist Prague safe for freemarket capitalism Unfortunately his college nemesis Theodore Mizen a certified socialist has also moved there and is determined to reverse the Velvet Revolution one folk song at a time After Shirting experiences the loss of his sole newhire a sad arcade gameobsessed prostitute it is not long before his grasp on his mission and indeed his sanity comes undone leaving him at the mercy of twobit Mafiosi a pair of Golem trackers and his own disgruntled phantomA dazzling combination of Everything is Illuminated and Don Quixote with a jigger of Confederacy of Dunces and Lord of the Barnyard Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe is the first novel to so exquisitely capture the ambiance of expat Prague Poised to be an underground classic it asks what does it mean to be sane in a fastchanging worldFrom the Trade Paperback edition