This wide-ranging novel by the leading Czech writer is a symphony of narrative playfulness as well as a homage to traditional storytelling.

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

Cities is made up of several novels in one book, linked by a narrator who sets out on a classic trip around the world in search of knowledge. While looking for a mysterious machine component containing a flash drive whose contents are unknown, he visits nine countries and cities: from Sweden via Ireland, France, the USA and Japan to Poland. During his adventures he participates in, or learns of, a number of immersive stories, constructed as separate novels: romance, fantasy, thriller and action. The book is a synthesis of all of Ajvaz’s prose work, philosophy, unique sense of humour, favourite narrative approaches and sources of literary inspiration, as well as a homage to narrative traditions. It is also the third and final work in an original trilogy of novels using postmodern techniques.

Michal Ajvaz (1949) is a philosopher, poet, novelist and essayist. After studying at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts he had various manual jobs. In the 1990s he was an editor at the journal Literární noviny, and since 2003 he has worked at the Centre for Theoretical Studies – a joint research institute of Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences. Since 1989 his publications have included a book of poetry, Vražda v hotelu Intercontinental (Murder in the Intercontinental Hotel, 1989), books of short stories (e.g. Návrat starého varana [(The Return of the Old Komodo Dragon, 1991)], several novels (e.g. Druhé město, [The Other City, 1993], Zlatý věk [The Golden Age, 2001], Cesta na jih [Voyage to the South, 2008]), philosophical studies (e.g. Kosmos jako sebeutváření [The Cosmos as Self-Creation, 2017]) and books of essays (e.g. Příběh znaků a prázdna [The Story of Signs and Emptiness, 2006]). He is the recipient of the Jaroslav Seifert Award, a Magnesia Litera award and the Prix Utopiales Européen. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages, including English and German.