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Czech BooksHana Andronikova: mourning a powerful Czech literary voice
It seems very strange to be talking about the Czech writer Hana Andronikova
in the past tense. When she died of cancer on December 20th last year, she
was only 44, and until the last months of her life had been at the height
of her creative powers. Author of two successful novels, several plays and
numerous short stories, she was one of the most versatile younger Czech
writers, and will be hugely missed. David Vaughan looks at her life and
work. More
Arts‘Adolf Loos – A Private Portrait’ offers readers a unique glimpse into the life of the modernist architect
In today’s Arts I talk to artist and editor Carrie Paterson about the
first English-language edition of a rare and fascinating book originally
published in 1936. Written by the third wife of modernist architect Adolf
Loos, Claire Beck Loos (Klára Becková-Loosová of Plzeň) it was
previously available only in German; the new edition, published by
Doppelhouse Press, is called Adolf Loos – A Private Portrait. More
Czech BooksCharles Ota Heller: a soldier at the age of nine
In the last days of World War II, nine-year-old Ota Heller picked up a
revolver and fired it at a German soldier. He did not wait to see if the
man was still alive. For decades afterwards he talked to no one about the
experience, and only recently has Ota Heller – or Charles Ota Heller, as
he is now called – felt able to return to his memories of the war,
collecting them in his book “Out of Prague”. In this week’s Czech
Books he talks to David Vaughan. More
ArtsJosef Škvorecký – Part 1 – The Cowards
In this week’s Arts we will be looking back at the remarkable life and
work of renowned writer, essayist and translator Josef Škvorecký who died
earlier this month at the age of 87. The author of novels such as The
Engineer of Human Souls was one of the most important in Czech 20th century
literature, first making his mark in 1958 with The Cowards. To discuss that
book and much, much more in the first of a two-part programme, I met with
respected Czech critic, translator, specialist in Czech studies and
Revolver Revue contributor Petr Onufer. In Part 1, we look largely
Škvorecký’s debut, The Cowards. More
Czech BooksJan Novák: the man who lived Miloš Forman
When Jan Novák describes himself as Miloš Forman’s autobiographer, he
is not entirely joking. He really did co-write the most famous
Czech-American film director’s memoirs, and Forman himself has spoken of
the book as “my life as lived by Jan Novák”. But Jan Novák is a great
deal more than a biographer. More
ArtsHow the Velvet Revolution overturned the literary landscape
Writers were at the forefront of the Velvet Revolution. But when the dust
settled on the political changes they found a fast changing publishing
revolution underway that left some of them sidelined. We look at the
changes in the publishing and literary world over the last two decades. More
ArtsReflections of modern Czech history in Simon Mawer’s ‘The Glass Room’
A Czech architectural landmark has provided the backdrop, and indeed
central theme, for a book which has been creating a stir in the literary
world. The Glass Room by Simon Mawer tells the story of a modernist villa
in a Czech town, from conception to construction, eventually to seizure by
the state. The Glass Room has been receiving a great deal of publicity ever
since it was nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Over the phone
from his home in Italy, author Simon Mawer voiced his bewilderment as to
why his book was proving so popular in Britain at the moment: More
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