The Czech Books You Must Read
Kafka, Čapek, Kundera and Havel, these are all world renowned names, but what about all the others? How well are Czech authors actually known abroad? Can you find a bookshop in Berlin, Madrid, Moscow, Paris or New York that aside from classics such as The Good Soldier Švejk also sell the works of contemporary Czech authors?
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18
Milan Kundera’s The Joke: love, vengeance and self-delusion in the shadow of Stalinism
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17
Bianca Bellová’s The Lake: childhood memories harnessed in archetypal story
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16
Too Loud a Solitude: Hrabal’s masterpiece with autobiographical elements
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15
The Seven Churches: a Gothic murder mystery from Prague
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14
Jaroslav Seifert: Nobel Prize laureate still loved across generations
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13
Václav Havel, master of the (political) Theatre of the Absurd
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12
Ota Pavel’s short stories: bittersweet childhood memories set against the backdrop of WWII
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11
The Cremator by Ladislav Fuks: A macabre study of descent to the dark side
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10
Impetuous, infantile and scientific - Patrik Ouředník’s Europeana
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9
Czech Comics from Ferda the Ant to Zátopek and Cecil’s Quest
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At Radio Prague International we have decided to map out the popularity and availability of Czech books abroad and find out which books have been translated into international languages such as English, German, Russian, Spanish and French. At the same time we will be providing our foreign audience with the opportunity to get acquainted with past and present Czech literary jewels.
The aim of the project is to give you a list of arguably the best and most popular Czech novels and poetry ever written, presenting not only the established classics, but also introducing the leading contemporary authors.
