Na okraji zmizelého – Pehe Jiří (2006)

Jiří Pehe tells the story of two Czech exiles in the United States in his novel. Both the professor and Josef are outsiders escaping reality, unclassifiable and uprooted. Although the professor has a successful career as a university teacher behind him, due to his fading memory and disorientation in time, he realizes that he must give it up, just as he once gave up his home and the women who passed through his life without leaving a significant mark. The turning point in his life is the loss of Josef, the son of his long-time friend. From the moment he learns that Josef has mysteriously disappeared, he desperately tries to find him, visiting places and people who might provide testimony about him. The political background of the kidnapping, which could involve the Czechoslovak secret police, as well as a criminal motive – revenge from the New York underworld – are at play, and other hypotheses are also possible. The professor's desperate effort to find at least some clue leads him to a late attempt to understand Josef, while feelings of failure, guilt, and futility grow within him. The professor's account of the present and the past is interspersed with Josef's notes, as the present intertwines with the past. Fragments of Josef's life unfold before the reader like a film, memories of life in a children's home, random and lasting loves, relaxed...