Michal Ajvaz

Empty Streets

Trans. Andrew Oakland
Empty Streets Empty Streets
Dalkey Archive Press, 2016, 488 pp
9791564787002
Language: English
Foreign rights:
Dana Blatná Literary Agency
http://www.dbagency.cz
blatna@dbagency.cz
Goodreads rating
87.2% (Rated by 101 users)
Prose

In a junkyard on the outskirts of Prague, a painter stumbles across a mysterious wooden object. As he begins to notice the object’s strange shape reproduced in various places around the city, he realizes that it holds the key to uncovering the truth about the recent disappearance of a young girl. His attempts to understand the meaning of the object bring him into contact with an array of characters, and the stories they tell him widen the vortex of uncertainty that the object has opened. Will the increasingly intricate web of clues eventually lead him to the truth? Empty Streets is both a thrilling fantasy and a philosophical meditation on the search for meaning in modern life.

More information on the publisher’s website.

Praise

“A remarkably creative, joyfully strange work”

— Ellen Elias-Bursac, Asymptote

“[…] the work is meticulously crafted. No tension is lost in the tangential rants of fleeting characters. As easy as it is to read through with rapt attention, this novel would definitely benefit from rereadings and re-examinations.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Michal Ajvaz is a literary magician creating worlds of worlds, worlds of words, worlds of objects. He is the fantastical baby of Borges and Timothy Leary. He is a cartographer on mescaline. He is Czech.”

Salonica

Information about the original Czech edition

Prázdné ulice

Dalkey Archive Press, 2016, 488 pp
9791564787002
Language: English
Foreign rights:
Dana Blatná Literary Agency
http://www.dbagency.cz
blatna@dbagency.cz
Goodreads rating
87.2% (Rated by 101 users)