New best-seller leads to speculation over author’s affair with former president Václav Havel

A novel titled “Secret Book” has been flying off the shelves in Czech bookstores. In it, author Irena Obermannová describes her secret affair with a figure that she refers to as “the greatest Czech.” The author is known for her very open, often autobiographical style of writing – and since the book’s male protagonist shares many traits with former president Václav Havel, there is heated speculation over the veracity of her account. Culture and society journalist Jana Ciglerová talks about the juicy bestseller.

Photo: CTK

“It is about an affair between the author and this figure, the biggest Czech. If you ask me whether it is true, I would say 100 percent, yes. I am positive that it happened the way that Irena Obermanová described it in her book. And the way he denied it, or maybe was forced to deny it, for me is further confirmation that it is true.

Czechs are clearly fascinated by the book, and it has been selling very well. Why do you think this is and what role does the nation’s fascination with the ex-president play in it?

Irena Obermannová

“First, the book is open, raw and honest. She does not hide anything, so it’d be interesting even if we did not know who the person the author writes about was, it’s just the openness about the relationship and this honest description. Plus, it’s Václav Havel, you don’t get any bigger than that. It’s so juicy and nobody would ever think that he would be able to have a physical affair. And the third thing is, nobody knows whether this is really true, only those two and their closest friends.”

If we talk about whether this is true or just a marketing step, Václav Havel has come out and denied that anything in the novel is truthful. The two are friends, too, so what is your personal opinion on this?

Václav Havel

“My personal opinion is that he had to deny it. His wife was furious, she is a very controlling person and could not tolerate that something like this had gone public. And it is totally demeaning to her position as the loving wife of a sick man. And Václav Havel always wanted to write a diary, he even said so in his book “Briefly, please” (Prosím stručně ), that he wanted to write the most open, rawest diary that he could. And probably he just never was courageous enough. When I read his denial of the affair – I know his style of writing, and he is not that negative and hurtful in his writing. So I am not even sure if he was the one who wrote the denial.”