Burying the Season is an affectionate, multi-layered account of small town life in central Europe beginning in the early 1930s and ending in the 21st Century.
Literary fiction
Adapting scenes from Fellini’s Amarcord, Bajaja’s meandering narrative weaves humour, tragedy and historical events into a series of compelling nostalgic anecdotes. The ex-King of Bulgaria, a future president with the unfortunate name Goose, strange visitors and eccentric locals are just a few of the peculiar, but very human, characters drawn by the author experiencing the wonder and disillusionment of their everyday lives.
Zlín, Bajaja’s hometown, with its Bauhaus inspired architecture, built by its major employer Baťa Shoes, feature prominently. Friends and family walk, skate, swim, quarrel, love and fall into the local river Dřevnice; disappearing and re-appearing, surviving changing times while their children play Swallows and Amazons. As an essay in remembering, it offers hope.
The original Czech edition was awarded the 2010 Czech State Prize for Literature.
More information on the publisher’s website.
Praise
“Nabokov meets Fellini in this tragicomic autobiographical narrative about growing up in provincial post-WWII Czechoslovakia”
— Andrei Rogatchevski, Institute of Language and Culture, the Arctic University of Norway UiT
Information about the original Czech edition
Other selected published translations (1)
Nad piękną modrą Dřevnicą Polish