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Current Affairs"Hana's Suitcase": a tragic story from the Holocaust with a message of hope
An extraordinary book about the Holocaust has just been published in
Prague. It's the story of a suitcase - a suitcase that belonged to a young
Czech Jewish girl called Hana Bradyova. Hana was one of tens of thousands
of Jewish Czechs who were sent to the ghetto in Terezin during the Nazi
occupation. David Vaughan picks up the story of "Hana's
Suitcase".
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Czech BooksJaroslav Rudis and the discreet charms of the Berlin U-Bahn
Welcome again to Czech Books. Now every little boy feels a frisson of
excitement as he watches a train thundering past or disappearing into a
tunnel, but by the time we hit 30 most of us have become pretty blasé
about such things. Not so the Czech writer Jaroslav Rudis. His writing
reflects a positive obsession with trains, and even the famously
unsuccessful punk band he plays in has the unlikely name of U-Bahn, named
after the Berlin underground railway. In fact the Berlin U-Bahn was the
hero of Jaroslav Rudis's highly successful first novel, "Nebe pod
Berlinem" - "The Heavens under Berlin" - that was published
last year. The book's rather quirky title is an inversion of the film
director Wim Wender's Berlin classic, "Der Himmel über Berlin",
known in English as "Wings of Desire", and the novel offers an
eccentric, very Czech perspective on life in the German capital. Trains
figure almost as prominently in Jaroslav Rudis's second novel "Bily
potok" - "The White Stream" - that came out last week. But
his writing is about a great deal more than rolling stock and bogies, as
Pavla Jonssonova found out when she invited him to the studio. She asked
Jaroslav what it was that drew him as a Czech writer to Berlin.
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Czech BooksThe neglected wealth of Roma writing in the Czech Republic
Once again a very warm welcome to Czech Books. Now if somebody asks you
about Romany or "Gypsy" culture in Central Europe you'll most
probably think first and foremost of music. But in the Czech Republic and
Slovakia today there is also a growing tradition of Romany writing. That's
the subject of today's Czech Books. A few days ago, my colleague Bernie
Higgins went to meet Milena Hubschmannova, who teaches Romany studies at
Prague's Charles University and the Romani language, still spoken by many
of Central Europe's Roma. Dr Hubschmannova has been instrumental in
fostering an awareness of Romany literature both in the Czech Republic and
abroad. She began their conversation by telling Bernie a little about the
short history of Roma writing in this country.
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Czech Books"The Sound of the Sundial" - Hana Andronikova talks about her award-winning novel
Welcome to Czech books and today we're going to be meeting Hana
Andronikova, a young Czech writer whose name has recently been buzzing
around Czech literary circles. Two years ago her debut novel, "Zvuk
slunecnich hodin" (The Sound of the Sundial) was published to huge
critical acclaim. It tells the story of the Keppler family from Zlin -
Hana's own hometown that was built from nothing in the 1920s around the
famous Bata shoe factory. The story is panoramic, moving in time and place
from Zlin to India, Colorado and Auschwitz - a twentieth century family
epic. The Sound of the Sundial has won Hana Andronikova several
prestigious literary awards, and was recently followed up by her
collection of short stories, "Srdce na udici" (Heart on a Hook).
A few days ago Hana came into the Radio Prague studio to talk to Pavla
Jonssonova about "The Sound of the Sundial". Pavla began by
asking her whether the book's sudden success had changed her life.
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ArtsReprint of Otto's Encyclopaedia complete
In a café, just two numbers away from the Dum Panu z Kunstatu in Prague's
Old Town, two publishing houses, Argo and Paseka, announced this week that
their joint effort, that had lasted for seven years, has successfully come
to a head. The two publishers decided to reprint one as yet unsurpassed
work of Czech lexicography, the forty-tome Ottuv slovnik naucny or Otto's
Encyclopaedia which was first published between 1888 and 1908. At the end
of the 19th century, publisher Jan Otto drew together a team of leading
Czech academics who compiled a monumental encyclopaedia which till this
day remains the one source of information Czechs turn to if they need to
find for example everything about watermills. Milan Gelnar is the director
of the publishing house Argo, one of the two publishers of the reprinted
Otto's Encyclopaedia.
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Current AffairsLong tradition of ore mining in Czech Republic coming to end
The Czech lands have a long history of ore mining, with the first attempts
dating back to the Stone Age. Although the Czech Republic's metal deposits
have not been exhausted, its mining industry is being phased out. The last
operating uranium mine will be closed down in two years. A comprehensive
study called "Ore and Uranium Mining in the Czech Republic" has
just been published; the study looks back at the history of mining in the
Czech lands and describes the evolution in mining technology, as well as
the impact of mining on the environment. According to its authors, all
prominent mining experts, the book is something of an epitaph to the Czech
mining tradition.
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Czech Books"The Lifted Veil" - George Eliot's Prague melodrama
George Eliot - the pseudonym of the great 19th English century novelist,
Marian Evans - is best known for her novels of rural England, so you may
be wondering why I mention her here on Radio Prague. The answer is quite
simple. One of her most dramatic narratives, The Lifted Veil, has a direct
link with the ancient city of Prague. In 1858, at a time when few English
people visited this part of Central Europe, Eliot, then in her late 30s,
spent a few days in the city on her way to Dresden. Prague made an instant
impression, as she wrote in her journal of the time: More
Czechs in HistoryMilan Simecka - letters from prison, manuscripts abroad
Every once in a while, and it is not often, one comes across a text that
both ideally captures its author but also comes to define a period. A text
that speaks with such frankness but also with finesse you find yourself
recalling its passages at odd, unexpected moments of the day. In today's
Czechs in History: a book of personal letters - written to one's loved
ones - a book from prison. We look at the life and work of journalist,
philosopher, and dissident Milan Simecka.
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Czech BooksBohumil Hrabal and Miroslav Holub - two legends of twentieth century Czech writing
Hello and a very warm welcome to another edition of Czech Books. Over the
last weeks you'll have got used in this programme to hearing the voice of
Bernie Higgins. Today Bernie's on the other side of the microphone. She
joins me in the studio to talk about some of her favourite Czech books.
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ArtsArchitect recalls genesis of Dancing Building as coffee table book published
On the corner of Resslova Street and Rasinovo nabrezi, about a hundred
metres downriver from the National Theatre, stands the best known - and
the most controversial - modern building in Prague, the Tancici Dum, or
Dancing Building. Featuring two curved towers "waltzing", it is
also occasionally referred to as the Fred and Ginger Building. Now, seven
years after its completion, a new coffee table book simply entitled
"Dancing Building" has just been brought out. Dr Jana Ticha of
publishers Zlaty Rez said the book was a long time in gestation.
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