Stanislav Komárek

The Little Black House

Trans. Mirko Kraetsch
Das schwarze Häuschen Das schwarze Häuschen
Das schwarze Häuschen
Braumüller, 2010, 324 pp
Language: German
Foreign rights:
Dana Blatná Literary Agency
http://www.dbagency.cz
blatna@dbagency.cz
Prose

Although the residents of the Little Black House, which was long ago purchased by the tailor Vodrážka, live in the dramatically changing world of the twentieth century, they are affected only obliquely by all the social upheavals. Over the generations, the little house has become the centre of their universe, as if it exerted over them some kind of secret force … But the book’s main theme is neither the family nor social development, but rather hidden aspects of the everyday, the way in which the fibres of fate are bound together. Though ordinary life in small-town South Bohemia has changed little in a hundred years, the author’s take on things – enriched by historical and etymological explanations and essay-style observations – makes of this a gripping story something more enthralling than many an event of “world” significance.

More information on the German edition here.

Information about the original Czech edition

Černý domeček

Other selected published translations (1)

Czarny domek Polish

Das schwarze Häuschen
Braumüller, 2010, 324 pp
Language: German
Foreign rights:
Dana Blatná Literary Agency
http://www.dbagency.cz
blatna@dbagency.cz