From the preface by the writer Ivan Klima: this collection does not represent the situation in the Czech Republic symbolically, with hackneyed visual effects. Matthew Monteith simply portrays his own view of contemporary society, and the pictures are not in any sense a Czech Eden; instead they capture, in an original, private and effective way, the many feelings a modern person has towards an unfamiliar world. As a pilgrim, Monteith is almost always isolated while being inside it. The photographs at the start of the book, taken inside the rock of Cesky raj (the Czech paradise, a nature reserve in the UNESCO list 97 km north-east of Prague), are truly symbolic: the stairs lead to no clear destination, only a gloomy view of a narrow passage, and another rock photograph shows a cave, another journey into darkness. People are depicted in great solitude, the same solitude and mutual isolation that Franz Kafka portrayed so effectively in Czech literature. Anyone who expects the photographer to take them on a tourist trip through the Czech Republic will be disappointed.