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WORTHLESSNESS
This book was published in the Czech Republic in 2009. Following its success among domestic readers, it was translated into Portuguese. This marks the first edition of the English version.
Eight seemingly independent stories that gently pull the reader into a microcosmos where childhood phantoms meet the ambivalence of coming of age. How can we manage to face the daemons from the past without losing our poker face and keeping our hand on the table? The former hunters are slowly captured by their own game and the former losers happily find themselves on the opposite side of the scale standing close to the top of the rank. Still we never definitely get rid of our past by cutting all our roots, and our childhood memories might be good stuff for games more serious than boiling one's beloved guinea-pig.
As usual, Pavel keeps his well-managed style poignant with ripping dialogues and offers a masterfully written plot, making this little big book a page turner!
Jan Pavel was born on October 26, 1973 in Prague. There he graduated from the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory (text writing and screenplay). He worked as a newspaper reporter then as a screenwriter for commercial television. He is presently the editor of the prestigious Slovart Publishing House. He lives in Prague.
The central theme for Pavel's prose is always the individual and what is closest to him, what forms him throughout his the relationship between man and woman. For the author this is without a doubt the most important aspect from which everything else develops. He observes human weakness, oftentimes with understanding, thus forcing the reader to ponder where the admissible border of „normality“ is without making any moralizations of his own. He uses dialogue as the connective thread of his texts (his studies of screenplay weren't for naught) – each character is like a sharpened blade that cuts into the living whenever the situation demands it. The urgency of his texts ties into the tradition of the great masters of Czech from K. H. Mácha and his near obsession with the grandiose suffering hero to Josef Škvorecký or Milan Kundera and his occasionally „unbearable“ cynic anti-heroes.
Selection from
Na pouti... (At a Fun Fair..., stories, Host, 1999)
Jizvení (Scarring, short novel, Arieta, 2005)
Až pes snese čokoládu (When the Dog Lays Chocolate, stories, essays, Artes Liberales, 2006)
Tramvaj do stanice (Tram to the Station, short novel, Artes Liberales, 2007)
I smrt se zahojí (Even Death will Heal, novel, Slovart Publishing House, 2007)
More at www.janpavel.eu
Eight seemingly independent stories that gently pull the reader into a microcosmos where childhood phantoms meet the ambivalence of coming of age. How can we manage to face the daemons from the past without losing our poker face and keeping our hand on the table? The former hunters are slowly captured by their own game and the former losers happily find themselves on the opposite side of the scale standing close to the top of the rank. Still we never definitely get rid of our past by cutting all our roots, and our childhood memories might be good stuff for games more serious than boiling one's beloved guinea-pig.
As usual, Pavel keeps his well-managed style poignant with ripping dialogues and offers a masterfully written plot, making this little big book a page turner!
Jan Pavel was born on October 26, 1973 in Prague. There he graduated from the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory (text writing and screenplay). He worked as a newspaper reporter then as a screenwriter for commercial television. He is presently the editor of the prestigious Slovart Publishing House. He lives in Prague.
The central theme for Pavel's prose is always the individual and what is closest to him, what forms him throughout his the relationship between man and woman. For the author this is without a doubt the most important aspect from which everything else develops. He observes human weakness, oftentimes with understanding, thus forcing the reader to ponder where the admissible border of „normality“ is without making any moralizations of his own. He uses dialogue as the connective thread of his texts (his studies of screenplay weren't for naught) – each character is like a sharpened blade that cuts into the living whenever the situation demands it. The urgency of his texts ties into the tradition of the great masters of Czech from K. H. Mácha and his near obsession with the grandiose suffering hero to Josef Škvorecký or Milan Kundera and his occasionally „unbearable“ cynic anti-heroes.
Selection from
Na pouti... (At a Fun Fair..., stories, Host, 1999)
Jizvení (Scarring, short novel, Arieta, 2005)
Až pes snese čokoládu (When the Dog Lays Chocolate, stories, essays, Artes Liberales, 2006)
Tramvaj do stanice (Tram to the Station, short novel, Artes Liberales, 2007)
I smrt se zahojí (Even Death will Heal, novel, Slovart Publishing House, 2007)
More at www.janpavel.eu
95 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 19, 2010
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 26, 2026
Worthlessness is a compact yet piercing collection of eight interconnected stories that explore the uneasy terrain between childhood memory and adult self-awareness. First published in the Czech Republic and now appearing in English for the first time, Jan Pavel’s prose invites readers into a psychological microcosm where the past never fully loosens its grip.
Each story functions independently, yet together they form a mosaic of reckoning and reversal. Former hunters become the hunted, perceived losers quietly ascend, and long-buried childhood phantoms re-emerge in moments of moral tension. Pavel does not offer redemption narratives or tidy resolutions. Instead, he examines how individuals negotiate identity, power, and vulnerability while maintaining what he calls a “poker face” in the face of their own histories.
Dialogue is the engine of the collection. Shaped by Pavel’s background in screenwriting, conversations cut sharply, revealing character through implication rather than exposition. There is an immediacy to the exchanges that makes the emotional stakes feel both intimate and unavoidable.
What distinguishes Worthlessness is its refusal to moralize. Pavel observes human weakness with a mix of empathy and restraint, compelling the reader to question where the boundary of “normality” truly lies. His work aligns naturally with the Czech literary tradition of existential inquiry and ironic detachment, echoing the influence of writers such as Kundera and Škvorecký without imitation.
This English edition introduces international readers to a voice that is both precise and unsettling one that understands how deeply the past informs even our most carefully curated selves.
Each story functions independently, yet together they form a mosaic of reckoning and reversal. Former hunters become the hunted, perceived losers quietly ascend, and long-buried childhood phantoms re-emerge in moments of moral tension. Pavel does not offer redemption narratives or tidy resolutions. Instead, he examines how individuals negotiate identity, power, and vulnerability while maintaining what he calls a “poker face” in the face of their own histories.
Dialogue is the engine of the collection. Shaped by Pavel’s background in screenwriting, conversations cut sharply, revealing character through implication rather than exposition. There is an immediacy to the exchanges that makes the emotional stakes feel both intimate and unavoidable.
What distinguishes Worthlessness is its refusal to moralize. Pavel observes human weakness with a mix of empathy and restraint, compelling the reader to question where the boundary of “normality” truly lies. His work aligns naturally with the Czech literary tradition of existential inquiry and ironic detachment, echoing the influence of writers such as Kundera and Škvorecký without imitation.
This English edition introduces international readers to a voice that is both precise and unsettling one that understands how deeply the past informs even our most carefully curated selves.
Displaying 1 of 1 review