Michal Viewegh's novel Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia is the story of the young Beata Kralova and her not-so-young tutor. Beata is a 20-year-old drop-out and daughter of Denis Kral (i.e., King), a Czech "new millionaire" of dubious connections. Beata embraces lover after lover as well as causes new to Eastern Europe: the environment, animal rights, feminism, consumerism, new-age religion. This picaresque romp gives a gritty but hilarious portrait of today's Prague, its mafiosi and their ex-secret police bodyguards, the expatriate Americans, and many an extraordinary Czech, from a cremation enthusiast to a hopelessly naive sex-education teacher. The novel is also a serious exploration of the role of the writer in post-communist Central Europe. The narrator, himself an author and teacher w