New books

An autobiographical story that sees the author – the recently deceased Jiří Gruša – rediscover the Czech language for literary purposes with fictitious memories of perilous feelings of a young A-level student for his teacher. A narrative unfolds about the necessity to lie in order to survive in bleak times. Gruša's new text is accompanied by two older short stories Salamandra and Pěší ptáci engendered as his last Czech works before he lost his citizenship and was barred from returning home. None of these works have been previously published in the Czech Republic. The book is thus a sort of literary U-turn which transforms departure into return and sorrow into joie de vivre.