Umberto Eco’s The Prague Cemetery hailed as 'Book of the Year' in Lidové noviny poll

Czech writers generally occupy the top spots of this traditional, respected poll conducted by the broadsheet and voted for by hundreds of personalities from literature and other fields. While last year, the late Jan Balabán’s Zeptej se táty (Ask Dad) was named the 'Book of the Year', this year a Czech book has appeared only at third place - a work of non-fiction about the history of the publisher Torst which champions quality Czech literature. The fourth place has been taken by an essay collection from the Seventies and Eighties by the translator Ladislav Jedlička.

Essay collections figure heavily elsewhere in the poll too, eg. Pavel Kosatík’s České okamžiky (Czech Moments) or Bankrot (Bankruptcy) by Viktor Šlajchrt. Sylva Fischerová‘s short story collection Pasáž (Arcade) appeared on 7th to 14th place.