After the fall of communism in Europe, countries formerly under Soviet domination are hurled into limbo overnight. Old rules have vanished while new governments are not yet in place. Everything is in a state of near-chaos. Many fear a return to communism while others foresee the rise of right-wing extremism. Even while celebrating the end of their isolation, people are wary of the future. In the literary/historical novel, Ghosts Behind Walls, Owen Finn, a washed-up American musician, walks out on his devastated marriage to perform in Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution. In Prague he is shocked to see his father-reported killed in Vietnam decades earlier-riding a bicycle through the streets. He then begins an emotional search for his father through a world reeling from upheaval, but at the heart of his search lies his need to find out what kind of a man he himself is-will he run from his past and disappear, like his father, or find redemption by facing it head on?