I Am Snowing: The Confessions of a Woman of Prague

by Pavel Kohout

Book Overview

This picaresque story, set in modern-day Prague, is an "invariably lively, often funny" (Washington Post) portrait of a nation in transition, a stylish combination of political allegory and whodunit.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374174008
• ISBN13: 9780374174002
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Hidden Goodness

At first I thought "oh this is a modern book about a woman single parent who likes to sleep with lots of guys and whose daughter is somewhat similar". But I sympathized with this woman and kept on reading even though it hurt. Little by little the vulgarity softened. Some characters became very human and very noble. The ending to me was the very best part of the book. I was very happy I didn't toss it away. The author wrote something very special and wrote it very masterfully. To me "I am Snowing" is an unforgettable book.

First-rate fiction from Eastern Europe

Probably the most surprising thing about this book is that author Kohout is not a woman. That's surprising because he has been able to create a main character, Petra, who is the epitome of womanhood, with all the attendant glory and confusion that such a designation entails. I Am Snowing's plot is masterful in its page-turning abilities; the reader keeps flipping not only to find out what's going to happen in Petra's ultra-chaotic lovelife, but to get to the bottom of the web of intrigue spun in this tale of post-Communist Prague. At bottom, it is a classic whodunit, but Kohout writes with such elegance that the feel is more highbrow than that. In short, the only thing that ruins this book is a clumsy ending. But don't let that keep you from picking this up at the first opportunity.