Hanta rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and carries them home. Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera calls our very best writer today, celebrates the power and the indestructibility of the written word. Translated by Michael Henry Heim.
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Ein alter Mann berichtet bei einer zuflligen Gelegenheit einem hbschen jungen Frulein, dem er Rosen in fremden Grten pflckt und Flugreisen verspricht, sein Leben. Er tut es unkonventionell, wie ihm die Dinge gerade in den Sinn kommen: geschwtzig und respektlos, renommierschtig und listenreich.So ist es, mein Frulein, so steht es mit der Vorliebe der Dichter fr Suff und Meditation, wenn die Verzweiflung nahe ist, ffnet sich der Himmel und eine Hand hilft den Gedanken ans Licht.

Novelist Bohumil Hrabal was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and he spent decades working at a variety of laboring jobs before turning to writing in his late forties. From that point, he quickly made his mark on the Czech literary scene; by the time of his death he was ranked with Jaroslav Hasek, Karel Capek, and Milan Kundera as among the nation's greatest twentieth-century writers. Hrabal's fiction blends tragedy with humor and explores the anguish of intellectuals and ordinary people alike from a slightly surreal perspective. His work ranges from novels and poems to film scripts and essays....

Novelist Bohumil Hrabal was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and he spent decades working at a variety of laboring jobs before turning to writing in his late forties. From that point, he quickly made his mark on the Czech literary scene; by the time of his death he was ranked with Jaroslav Hasek, Karel Capek, and Milan Kundera as among the nation's greatest twentieth-century writers. Hrabal's fiction blends tragedy with humor and explores the anguish of intellectuals and ordinary people alike from a slightly surreal perspective. His work ranges from novels and poems to film scripts and essays....