Double agents

Real life between two countries

What is it like to live between two homes, two languages and two identities? The book Double Agents brings a compelling and hitherto little mapped view of the experience of Czech women who went to Germany to study, work or love. Unlike the generations before 1989, they are free to cross borders, yet remain somewhat "between worlds": in Germany are Czech women, in the Czech Republic they are those who already see things differently. The authors of the interviews Zuzana Lizcová and Zuzana Jürgens expertly open up sensitive issues of identity, home and cultural differences. At the same time, they offer authentic, personal and often very open testimonies of women whose experience has been rarely seen in Czech literature. The book also gives space to men who share a similar life situation and thus adds other important perspectives to the mosaic of cross-border identity. You can read, for example, interviews with Dagmar Pecková, Dana Horáková or Jaroslav Rudiš.

What is life really like in Germany? In what ways are Czech and German societies close, and where do they diverge? And what does this "split" mean in everyday life? Double Agents tells the story of the search for balance between two cultures, of everyday clashes and harmony, and of the fact that home sometimes doesn't have to be just one place.

About the authors:

Zuzana Lizcová works as Head of the Department of German and Austrian Studies at the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University (IMS FSV UK) and as a journalist. It focuses on German-speaking countries, their role in the international context and bilateral relations with the Czech Republic. From 2004 to 2013 she worked in the documentary department of the Czech Press Agency (CTK), where she specialized in German-speaking countries and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. She then worked as a freelance journalist, analyst for the Association for International Affairs (AMO) and coordinator of the Czech-German Young Professionals Programme (CGYPP).

Zuzana Jürgens studied Czech language and literature in Prague. Since 2001 she has lived in Germany, teaching Czech literature at the universities of Konstanz, Berlin and Munich. She was the head of the Czech Centre Munich (2009-2014) and Düsseldorf (2010-2013), and currently directs the Adalbert Stifter Verein - Cultural Institute for the Czech Lands in Munich. He occasionally translates and interprets from Czech and German.