Czech Books Vaclav Cilek: "Prague: Between History and Dreams" - digging through the layers of an ancient land
"Relationships created over hundreds of years can't be easily destroyed - relationships to those complicated yet ordinary things: wood, soil, the landscape. The unique awareness in mind and heart of those things that form the essence of a place is called genius loci - something that cannot be given a name, but to which we always return." Welcome to Czech Books. Those were a few lines from the beginning of a fascinating new book by the 49-year-old Prague writer, geologist and philosopher, Vaclav Cilek. It's called "Prague: Between History and Dreams" and offers an extraordinary journey into the different layers of the past and present of Prague and the towns and countryside around. The book is full of unusual and quirky insights - historical details, legend, philosophical reflection and observations from everyday life - a refreshing alternative to the rather dull, ponderous style beloved of the writers of guidebooks. Vaclav Cilek is quite simply different. For a start, he is well known as the Czech Republic's foremost expert on tunnels, caves and catacombs. As he told me when he came to visit our studio last week, this fascination colours his writing.
Vaclav Cilek
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