Set on the Greek island of Crete, The Shape of Crete is a thrilling drama and passionate love story between a Bulgarian artist, Steffi, and James, an American historian. Rekindling their romance after a separation, Crete’s history of ancient myths and Nazi occupation entwines them in surprise and danger.
“This story made me feel connected to the main character, George Nepras, to his life in jazz, to the passion he could not stifle.” —D.M. DiSantis
PHILIP T. NEMEC’S NOVEL CHRONICLES THE CZECH IMMIGRANT JAZZ EXPERIENCE IN 20TH CENTURY CHICAGO
“This story made me feel connected to the main character, George Nepras, to his life in jazz, to the passion he could not stifle.” —D.M. DiSantis
Chicago on the move
Czechs in the New World
Hot Jazz
sign up for jazz footnotes and other news from Philip T. Nemec
George Nepras, the Syncopator, lives a hard life in Chicago as the son of blue collar Czech immigrants. In that life, dreams wander little further than the tedium of a factory floor, but George discovers music. On a long walk, as if in a dream, George happens on the speakeasies of Chicago’s south side. The jazz of King Oliver spills out onto the street and draws George inside. In an instant, his life changes direction.
George struggles to balance the limitations of his insular ethnic neighborhood with wild syncopated jazz rhythms. He befriends jazz greats like Bix Beiderbecke, but the flu pandemic, The Great Depression, world war, racial violence, and labor unrest seem to conspire to defeat his dreams. George struggles against it all with courage and a spirit in which he desires to bequeath his life’s lessons to the next generation of musicians. MORE>
Bohemian Food – Footnotes 18-20
Cultural Myths
