Description:

Austrian author Theodora Bauer’s latest novel Chikago is the product of extensive interviews and research Bauer conducted on the (hi-)stories of Austrians who emigrated to Chicago in the 1920s. Bauer, who lives and works in Vienna and Burgenland, reimagines this material to tell a story about many things: the yearning for a better life in a different land, and the often brutal reality of immigrant experience. In Chikago, Chicago is a place of hope and tragedy in equal measure for its immigrant protagonists, and Bauer’s novel compels us to reconsider and reflect on contemporary narratives about displacement, homeland, and immigrant and refugee identity.