Paula Xiberras
Author Rachael Weiss has never been to Tasmania and lists it and Darwin as two places in Australia she is yet to and wants to visit. Rachael says she would love to explore the natural side of Tasmania, including Cradle Mountain. One of the reasons Rachael hasn’t got around to visiting Tasmania is she has been living outside of Australia, including for a time in Prague, the home city of her Father and it is that city that is the subject of Rachael’s memoir ‘The Thing about Prague’.
Familial links to Prague means Rachael has visited that city before but there came a time some years ago when she decided she would relocate to Prague for an extended period to write a book.In spite of familial ties Rachael had no advantages in settling there, for one, she is not being fluent in the language. In fact the process of moving to Prague was disruptive. Rachael arrived there as an immigrant starting from scratch but with no end of material for her writing.
There was no job waiting for her and Rachael stretched herself by taking on numerous and sometimes quirky jobs including becoming an astrology writer and travel writer. Rachael found the astrology writing a lot of fun but soon saw herself on the outer when she actually told people at parties that she well,’made it all up’.
Another duty Rachael bravely took on was becoming a singer at the local Spanish Synagogue, something she had always desired to do. It was a way of ‘anchoring herself into community life’ where she says it ‘was all hands to the wheel’ and it mattered little that her service renditions were not perfect as most of the attendants were tourists and just grateful to find and be enfolded in the community of the Synagogue. Rachael says there may have been some embarrassing occasions but nobody cared. Landing on her feet, Rachael revelled in going outside the square to do things she ‘wasn’t ready’ to do. One thing Rachael was ready for was romance and the memoir details her adventures in the amorous (sometimes the scary as well!)
On her travels Rachael did meet fellow Australian author and part time Prague resident, fantasy author, Isabelle Carmody, when both were taking their books to a bookstore.
And the Aussie girls had more in common than imagined because while Isabelle’s books are fantastical, Rachael’s are firmly set in reality, although with her experiences in the magical city of Prague albeit a slightly heightened reality!
Charles Bridge has notches in it that mark the various floods that have visited the city since they began in the eighteenth century some of them of ‘enormity’. Racheal tells me there was a flood proof metre system devised by the communists but when it came to the time to turn the switch, it was discovered it hadn’t been installed. Rachael says this in indicative of how things were delayed under that government system.
Rachael, when I spoke to her, was in Australia on a promotional visit but was soon to return to her new place of residence, Dublin. Just previous to Dublin she had a four year stint in Sheffield. She plans to settle in Dublin for a while and write a book on that city or perhaps one on Sheffield. It is the life of the author, or at least this author, to experience and write in different cities. Rachael plans to stay in Dublin for a while before perhaps, returning to Prague for another visit and finally, to settle back in Australia.
Rachael’s book ‘The Thing about Prague’ is out now, published by Allen & Unwin.
