As Czechoslovakia's communist regime expired in 1989, Hrabal began to write after a long literary silence. He called his short individual texts lyrical reportage in the form of letters addressed to Dubenka (April Gifford), a visiting American student who became the muse of his later years. In these letters, spanning the period from 1989 to 1992, Hrabal gives us a memoir of humorous, moving, free association.