Originally published in 1961, this shrewd, smartly written novel follows two American men traveling in Europe. Though both have struck out for the same continent, each man’s methods of and motives for travel lead him to have a very different experience than the other. Underlying it all is the premise that Europe--the contrast, the otherness of it--can be a refiner’s fire, deeply affecting a person’s character. Europe represents a crucial step in Stern’s development as a writer and stands as a witty, sharp point of entry into his writings and the writings of novelists who rose to prominence in the 1960s.

Richard Stern is the author of the novels Natural Shocks, Other Men’s Daughters, Stitch, and Pacific Tremors, as well as a complete collection of his short fiction, Almonds to Zhoof. Stern is the Helen Regenstein Professor of English emeritus at the University of Chicago.