Winterberg's Last Journey - paperback

Described by The Spectator as 
 
'European history being retold as a beautiful tragicomedy' and
'In Winterberg’s Last Journey, Rudis has created a European Forrest Gump.'
 
Full review here: 
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/haunted-by-the-past-winterbergs-last-journey-by-jaroslav-rudis-reviewed/
 
Winternerg's Last Joourney
by Jaroslav Rudiš
Translated by Kris Best
 
When Czech geriatric nurse Jan Kraus is charged with the care of 99-year-old Wenzel Winterberg, a Sudetenland German expelled from his Bohemian homeland after the Second World War, he believes their time together will be limited. But a casual remark from Kraus one night – ‘it’s interesting; your name is Winterberg, and I came from Winterberg, from Vimperk in Bohemia, which used to be called Winterberg’ – sparks a new life in the old man. Winterberg becomes obsessed with uncovering the fate of his lost love, German-Jewish woman Lenka Morgenstern. Kraus is then dragged along by Winterberg on a winding train journey from Berlin to Sarajevo, all the while dealing with Winterberg’s regular ‘historical fits’. Their only guide is Winterberg’s Baedeker for Austria-Hungary from 1913 – the last edition ever issued.
 
'Winterberg's Last Joiurney is compelling, melancholy, and genuinely funny, drawing readers deep into the heart of Europe's 20th century trauma as viewed from the present day. Critics have praised it as ‘a haunting exploration of history in the area where two World Wars began’, with some calling Winterberg 'a European Forrest Gump' and others comparing it to Kerouac's On the Road and Chaplin's The Tramp.