Prague Orgy, The

Description:
In this surreal and powerful coda to the Zuckerman trilogy, Nathan Zuckerman is visiting Prague, where intellectuals come searching for Kafta, where half the population is spying on the other half, where misfits who don't submit decently to their misfortunes act out a comedy of manners in stylish decadence. Here Zuckerman meets Olga, and striking a deal with this strangely impressive woman is to bring home lessons for the successful American writer - lessons about oppression and resilience, laughter and Kafta, Jewishness and the unforeseen consequences of art.

Author Biography:
In the 1990s Philip Roth won America's four major literary awards in succession: the National Book Critics Circle Award for Patrimony (1991), the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock (1993), the National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater (1995), and the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for American Pastoral (1997). He won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for I Married a Communist (1998); in the same year he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. Previously he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Counterlife (1986) and the National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus (1959). In 2000 he published The Human Stain, concluding a trilogy that depicts the ideological ethos of postwar America. For The Human Stain Roth received his second PEN/Faulkner Award as well as Britain's W. H. Smith Award for the Best Book of the Year. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in fiction, given every six years 'for the entire work of the recipient.'