Jáchym Topol

The Devil's Workshop

Trans. Edgar de Bruin
De werkplaats van de duivel De werkplaats van de duivel
De werkplaats van de duivel
Ambo|Anthos, 2010, 160 pp
Language: Dutch
Foreign rights:
Pluh
http://www.pluh.org
info@pluh.org
Prose

The exploration of history’s trail, same as in Topol’s previous works, is intertwined with a surreal-carnival plot. The laconically narrated story is an archeology of horror, layer by layer uncovering the territory of the more recent European past. In the moment, when the last members of a generation that had experienced it all die, Topol demonstrates how their descendants strive to preserve the stories about violence, which they perceive as the last bastion of authenticity – only to founder in throes of commerce, musealisation and politics. Topol adroitly manages to steer clear of being explicit or chucking all values at the postmodern history scrapyard. On his journey to the mass graves of the European East, he approaches the ethically ambiguous questions from divergent perspectives, and – as if unwittingly and with subtle irony – undermines the apparently stable essence of our historical self-reflection.

Europese Literatuurprijs 2010 nomination

Information about the original Czech edition

Chladnou zemí

Other selected published translations (8)

Kallt land Swedish

Die Teufelswerkstatt German

Gjennom et kaldt land Norwegian

L'officina del diavolo Italian

L’Atelier du Diable French

The Devil's Workshop English

Por el país del frío Spanish

Warsztat diabła Polish

De werkplaats van de duivel
Ambo|Anthos, 2010, 160 pp
Language: Dutch
Foreign rights:
Pluh
http://www.pluh.org
info@pluh.org