Pueblo, Colorado

This small mining town is an important place because it is where the first of Ondrej Vinich's piece of bad luck happens to him. One of the themes of this book is fate or destiny, and it seems that the events of June 1899 in Pueblo Colorado set Ondrej on a path that seriously diverts his life and those of his then-infant son, Josef. It is also the place of Josef's birth, and the place where he loses his mother to a terrible train accident. Although his time in Colorado is short-lived, and the time of the Colorado setting is short, it is important because the author chooses to begin the story there.

Dardan, Pennsylvania

The German corner of Pennsylvania is Ondrej and Josef's next stop on their life's new trajectory. Early in the narrative, Josef tells the reader that he lives there in the year 1972, so the...