Prose | English sample translation available
This distinctive novel is set in various shadowy settings about Prague, such as the belfry of St. Nicholas’s church, Petřín hill, a Malá strana café, Café Slavia, and the large Klementinum historical library. These are the places where a lonely young man walks at the ghostly hours of night and where flashes of the symbolic Other City emerge mingled with the reality of old Prague. All this is veiled in a dreamy atmosphere, the mysterious contents of which draw the narrator like a moth to a flame.
Praise
“Ajvaz’s novel is a gorgeous matryoshka doll of unreason, enigma and nonsense – truly weird and compelling.”
“Some incredible things happen in this book. [… ] The writing is clear, simple, a pleasure to read.”
— Nicolas Carreau, Europe 1