An American in Luxembourg Sequel Hits Bookshelves

Mike McQuaide, a US-Luxembourgish influencer widely known as "An American in Luxembourg", recently announced the release of his second book An American Still in Luxembourg.

In 2017, Mike McQuaide published his first book An American in Luxembourg (Editions Saint-Paul) and in summer 2022, he announced that a sequel was in the works. Almost a year later, in June 2023, An American Still in Luxembourg (Editions Ernster) hit the bookshelves in the Grand Duchy. Chronicle.lu reached out to Mike to learn more.

Chronicle.lu: When we last spoke, you had just recently secured a new book deal and the title was yet to be confirmed. What led to the choice of An American Still in Luxembourg?

Mike McQuaide: It seemed sort of like a no-brainer - I'm known all over social media as An American in Luxembourg, or in public as "Hey, you're that American guy!", so I wanted to take advantage of that. I put it to my followers too and they voted for "An American Still in Luxembourg". Though I also received some great suggestions; one of my faves was "An American Sandwich: A Man Between Two Countries". 

Chronicle.lu: What is the main focus of the sequel? In what ways does this book differ from your first one?

Mike McQuaide: It's similar in that it's humorous tales about my life here in Luxembourg, but it details maybe the next step of living in Luxembourg - learning the language (to some extent), taking the "Sproochentest" and becoming a Luxembourg citizen and - will wonders never cease - becoming an actual European! Also, I'm now somewhat of a Luxembourg "expert", as it were, and over the past five years, I've probably made more than a hundred videos for various tourist agencies of places to go and things to see in Luxembourg and I sometimes lead tours too. There's one story in the book that follows myself and a small video crew on our rollicking adventure throughout the Grand Duchy as we see how far we can go in one day using Luxembourg's free public transportation. The story includes QR codes to all the videos we shot that day. Also, like the first book, this one includes a lot of my photos too.

Chronicle.lu: How did the writing and/or publishing process compare to the first time round?

Mike McQuaide: Pretty much the same. Sit down. Write. Read what I've written. Cross it out. Write some more. Read what I've written. Cross out maybe half of it. Write some more...

Chronicle.lu: What do you hope readers (loyal and new alike) will gain from reading your new book?

Mike McQuaide: I hope they get a few laughs, maybe learn a thing or two about this amazing country that has made me feel so welcome over the years. Truthfully, I wasn't sure if I wanted to write a second book, but last year, I met this guy just before the Schleck Gran Fondo bike ride who told me about his eleven-year-old son who'd read my first book and how it had helped him integrate into living in Luxembourg. They were expats too and I guess the kid was a bit iffy about moving here. But apparently - according to his dad, at least - the boy read my book, enjoyed it, probably saw that he and I were sort of in the same boat and that I was enjoying myself, and so maybe Luxembourg didn't seem as intimidating. I was amazed by this story and the rest of the bike ride, I was like: "Wow, something I wrote actually helped another person?! That's soooo cool!" The possibility that I might again be able to help someone else was reason enough to write a second book. Funnily enough, this past week, I met this kid for the first time and I told him: "You're the reason I wrote An American Still in Luxembourg." He seemed pretty pleased. (He'd read the second book too, and, thankfully, he liked it.)

Upcoming book signings:

Friday 14 July 2023 from 15:00 to 17:00 at Ernster Cloche d'Or
Saturday 15 July 2023 from 15:00 to 17:00 at Ernster Belle Etoile
Saturday 22 July 2023 from 15:00 to 17:00 at Ernster Topaze, Mersch
Thursday 17 August 2023 at 18:30, as part of a "Stad Liest" reading in Luxembourg City

An American Still in Luxembourg is currently available at Ernster stores, K Kiosks, Cactus and other shops in Luxembourg. As Mike McQuaide noted, his publisher, Editions Ernster, has also reprinted the first book, An American in Luxembourg, which had been "unavailable for a while because it had sold out" but is now also back in stores.