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Povídky: Short Stories by Czech Women
This collection brings together authors of different generations, styles and backgrounds.
A lyrical, mysterious tour through Prague mixes history with legend and everyday reality. A child's philosophical reflections on the Christian concept of sinfulness lead him to resolve to sin 'just a little bit'. A witty style informs stories of drunken men bantering over interminable card games, teenage girls smoking in school toilets, and a woman whose salvation comes in the unexpected form of pickled men's buttocks. For the first time in an anthology of translated Czech literature, this book also features two short stories written by Czech Roma.
These Czech women express their multiple perspectives on social and intimate issues with sometimes biting, sometimes gentle, insight into human nature.
Nancy Hawker is reading Languages and Cultures at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Raised in France and the Czech Republic, in the course of her studies she has absorbed English, French, Czech, Hebrew and Arabic literature.
For the compilation of Povídky, she explored every obscure literary cafe of her home town, Prague.
A lyrical, mysterious tour through Prague mixes history with legend and everyday reality. A child's philosophical reflections on the Christian concept of sinfulness lead him to resolve to sin 'just a little bit'. A witty style informs stories of drunken men bantering over interminable card games, teenage girls smoking in school toilets, and a woman whose salvation comes in the unexpected form of pickled men's buttocks. For the first time in an anthology of translated Czech literature, this book also features two short stories written by Czech Roma.
These Czech women express their multiple perspectives on social and intimate issues with sometimes biting, sometimes gentle, insight into human nature.
Nancy Hawker is reading Languages and Cultures at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Raised in France and the Czech Republic, in the course of her studies she has absorbed English, French, Czech, Hebrew and Arabic literature.
For the compilation of Povídky, she explored every obscure literary cafe of her home town, Prague.
- GenresShort Stories
210 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 2, 2023
A really strong and enjoyable collection of female Czech writers which features some stories with a light and wry tone, some much darker. There are short, weird stories and long melancholy touching stories One concerns an extremely rigid husband who tries to control his wife in every aspect and then can’t handle it when she rebels and some of the authors have Roma ancestry, and this aspect is explored in some of the stories like How I went to School. Most focus on a woman’s perspective but there are male voices and narrators including a little boy worrying about animals going to heaven or not. My favorite is one of the longer ones, Owlet but there isn’t a weak story in the collection.
July 4, 2007
This book has been edited by my amazing friend Nancy Hawker.
It's a great selection of a variety of different Czech short stories, which have been translated into English for the first time.
The story "How I went to School" by Tera Fabianova made me cry. It's got to be my favourite one in the volume. Let me know which one you liked best.
It's a great selection of a variety of different Czech short stories, which have been translated into English for the first time.
The story "How I went to School" by Tera Fabianova made me cry. It's got to be my favourite one in the volume. Let me know which one you liked best.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews