In these two audacious novellas, Americans abroad find that losing themselves in another culture can be dangerous

Invited to Prague’s first annual Kafka conference to read from his play about the great Czech writer, a playwright named Landau finds himself upstaged by Jiri Krakauer, the dashing Holocaust survivor whose claim to fame is a long-ago death-camp love affair with Kafka’s sister. On a visit to the camp, Landau attempts to prove that Krakauer is lying—risking his career to destroy that of another.

On the other side of Europe, Nina and Leo go on a macabre tour of their own. A guidebook editor and his besotted assistant, they are enduring a miserable French vacation when Leo suggests a “Paris Death Trip,” taking in catacombs, prisons, and all the darkest corners of the City of Light.

In these two novellas, Francine Prose skewers Americans abroad.