Jan Balabán

Kogumik sisaldab novelle nuudiskirjanikelt ule kogu maailma ja viib lugeja muuhulgas ühte prantsuse pühapäeva, lopmatusse aega, mis jääb autost väljumise ja koduuksest sisseastumise vahele, hobuse pähe, India tänavatele, maailmaloppu Mikist ootama, surrogaatema igapäeva, kokandustundi ja muidugi reisile inimhinge südamesse. Kokku saavad autori-tolkija paarid Szila'rd Borbe'ly ja Lauri Eesmaa, Manon Uphoff ja Kairi Look, Maksim Ossipov ja Veronika Einberg, Annie Saumont ja Maria Esko, Roman Malonovskoi ja Ilona Martson, Bart Moeyaert ja Kerti Tergem, Kyoko Nakajima ja Alari Allik, Lutz Seiler ja Eve Sooneste, Yiyun Li ja Ann Alari, Menis Kumandareas ja Kaarina Rein, Dalton Trevisan ja Mariliin Vassenin, A. Igoni Barrett ja Heili Sepp, Alvydas Slepikas ja Tiina Kattel, Jan Balaba'n ja Küllike Tohver, Lana Bastasic' ja Madis Vainomaa, Kunwar Narain ja Mathura, Edina Szvoren ja Lauri Eesmaa. NB! Veebipoest tellides disaini valida ei saa.

A young boy from the housing estates comes across a copse of old oaks to which he can escape, as to an oasis of calm. Although he may forget about it once he becomes an adult and "puts aside the things of childhood," it will remain a locus of balance, decades later, for a single mother struggling with the difficulties of raising the child she loves. A husband, on the lip of an ugly divorce, drives across town in the middle of the night to rescue his wife, abandoned by her lover, and then -- as she falls asleep in the car -- takes the long way home, to prolong a moment such as he has not experienced in years. An elderly doctor, self-diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, makes use of the few precious moments of consciousness granted him each morning to pass on to his grandson what he has learned about life and living responsibly. Loss, and permanence, the ephemeral and the eternal, are common themes of Jan Balab n's collection of short stories Maybe We're Leaving, presented here in the English translation of Charles S. Kraszewski. With psychological insight that rivals the great novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, the twenty-one linked narratives that make up the collection present us with everyday people, with everyday problems -- and teach us to love and respect the former, and bear the latter. Translation of this book was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

'Somewhere in the cosmos there are happier places, ' muses Martin Vr na, the hero of Jan Balab n's novel Where was the Angel Going?. 'People are transported to the planet Earth for punishment. Part of the punishment is their ignorance of the fact. We've forgotten that we've forgotten.' Yet, as this very reflection implies, in Martin's case, part of his 'punishment' is his ever-present memory of an Eden from which he had been expelled. The prototypical outsider, a member of a minority community within a minority community (a Protestant in the overwhelmingly agnostic Czech Republic), Martin, like the survivor of a shipwreck, strives to shore up his vital resources amidst the billows of an inimical world, which constantly advance and threaten to wash away everything he holds dear. Where was the Angel Going? is a novel made up of forty-six linked stories. As always, Balab n's prose is so vivid that the reader can practically taste the 'honey and dust, ' which are the characteristic flavours of Ostrava. And yet, in its lyrical message of love and friendship as basic human needs no less critical than air and water, Where was the Angel Going is nonetheless an eminently universal novel. Everyone will find him or herself in these pages, as we are all of us descended from that first pair of exiles, Adam and Eve. Translation of this book was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. Publishers Maxim Hodak & Max Mendor.

Sammetsrevolutionen 1989 förändrade på ett omvälvande sätt litteraturens villkor i Tjeckien. Författarna fick plötsligt en helt ny verklighet att förhålla sig till. Tiden som följde blev dynamisk. Bokmarknaden formligen exploderade med en salig blandning av högt och lågt. Många äldre författare hade svårt att finna sig till rätta, medan de yngre började experimentera och tänja på språkets gränser. Efterhand tog nya författarskap form som har kommit att dominera och förnya den litterära scenen. Två decennier efter murens fall är den tjeckiska litteraturen en spännande och färgstark blandning av etablerade författare och nydanande debutanter. Den här antologin gläntar på dörren till det magiska, det tragiska, det burleska och det humoristiska i den samtida tjeckiska litteraturen.

A young boy from the housing estates comes across a copse of old oaks to which he can escape, as to an oasis of calm. Although he may forget about it once he becomes an adult and "puts aside the things of childhood," it will remain a locus of balance, decades later, for a single mother struggling with the difficulties of raising the child she loves. A husband, on the lip of an ugly divorce, drives across town in the middle of the night to rescue his wife, abandoned by her lover, and then -- as she falls asleep in the car -- takes the long way home, to prolong a moment such as he has not experienced in years. An elderly doctor, self-diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, makes use of the few precious moments of consciousness granted him each morning to pass on to his grandson what he has learned about life and living responsibly. Loss, and permanence, the ephemeral and the eternal, are common themes of Jan Balab n's collection of short stories Maybe We're Leaving, presented here in the English translation of Charles S. Kraszewski. With psychological insight that rivals the great novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, the twenty-one linked narratives that make up the collection present us with everyday people, with everyday problems -- and teach us to love and respect the former, and bear the latter. Translation of this book was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

Efter faderns död börjar det dyka upp ursinniga brev. I breven anklagas den döde för att ha gått kommunistregimen till mötes och för att ha åsidosatt sin plikt som läkare. Det tvingar modern och de tre vuxna barnen att omvärdera sitt förhållande till honom. Ligger det någon sanning bakom? Vad är rätt och vad är fel? Hur mycket kan man ge efter utan att förlora sin heder? De stora existentiella frågorna genomsyrar Jan Balabáns författarskap. Hans sista roman Fråga pappa är fylld av smärtsamma reflektioner, förtätade dialoger och mättade tystnader.