Central European modern history is notable for many political and cultural discontinuities and often violent changes as well as many attempts to preserve and (re)invent traditional cultural identities. This series cultivates contemporary translations of influential literary works into English (and other languages) which have not been available to global readership due to censorship, the effects of Cold War or repetitive political disruptions in Czech publishing and its international ties. Readers in English both in today’s cosmopolitan Prague or anywhere in the physical and electronic world can thus become acquainted with works which capture the Central European historical experience and which express and also have helped to form Czech and Central European nature, humour and imagination. Believing that any literary canon can be defined only in dialogue with other cultures, the series will bring proven classics used in Western university courses as well as (re)discoveries aiming to provide new perspectives in intermedial areal studies of literature, history and culture. All titles are accompanied by an afterword, the translations are reviewed and circulated in the scholarly community before publication which has been reflected by nominations for several literary awards.
The Lesser Histories

The Lesser Histories

Zábrana, Jan

From the eighth floor of a tower block in Central Europe, Jan Zábrana surveyed the twentieth century. He had been exiled from his own lif...

published: june 2022
recommended price: 340 czk

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Un été capricieux

Un été capricieux

Vančura, Vladislav

In Summer of Caprice (the classic novel of the Twenties that was adapted into the beloved film of the Czech New Wave in the Sixties) the ...

published: december 2014
recommended price: 500 czk

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Rozmarné léto

Rozmarné léto

Vančura, Vladislav

A famous work by Vladislav Vančura about adventures of magician Arnoštek, beautiful Anna, Mrs. Kateřina and mainly of three gentlemen in ...

published: december 2007
recommended price: 275 czk

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Summer of Caprice

Summer of Caprice

Vančura, Vladislav

Vladislav Vančura's Summer of Caprice is commonly considered untranslatable. The playful style of the narrative, the level of language ma...

published: may 2006
recommended price: 480 czk

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Un'estate capricciosa

Un'estate capricciosa

Vančura, Vladislav

Vladislav Vančura's Summer of Caprice is commonly considered untranslatable. The playful style of the narrative, the level of language ma...

published: november 2013
recommended price: 480 czk

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A Czech Dreambook

A Czech Dreambook

Vaculík, Ludvík

It’s 1979 in Czechoslovakia, ten years into the crushing restoration of repressive communism known as normalization, and Ludvík Vaculík h...

published: october 2019
recommended price: 540 czk

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The Well at Morning

The Well at Morning

Reynek, Bohuslav

Poet and artist Bohuslav Reynek spent most of his life in the relative obskurity of the Czech-Moravian Highlands; although he suffered at...

Selected Poems and Graphic Artworks, 1925–1971

published: september 2017
recommended price: 490 czk

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Ear

Ear

Procházka, Jan

A paranoid thriller of life under surveillance in Communist Czechoslovakia. A deputy minister in the Communist Party, Ludvík enjoys all t...

published: july 2022
recommended price: 280 czk

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Les Hommes hors-jeu

Les Hommes hors-jeu

Poláček, Karel

Emmanuel Habasko est un jeune chômeur habitant avec son père dans un petit appartement de Zizkov, faubourg prolétaire de la capitale tché...

published: december 2012
recommended price: 430 czk

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