Konrad Kemper, the young hero of Discovering America, dreams irrepressibly of America in a refugee camp in postwar Austria. In the process he discovers not only his own quirky America, but encounters a stew of survivors scrambling to move on from the rubble of the war— refugees from Eastern Europe, Austrian townsfolk, and even American soldiers. Konrad’s hard-bitten story combines grit and a comic edge, and finally hope and growing up.