Prose  |  English sample translation available

Hakl is a Czech literary celebrity, best known for his novel Of Kids and Parents, published in ten languages, with a successful film also based on the book. A True Story matches up to the aforementioned book in terms of quality. A novel about all that happens as consequence of one ordinary date, one ordinary friendship, one ordinary distraint and one ordinary desire for revenge. Hakl remains faithful to generic unclassifiability – snippets from the history of the German RAF are mixed in with the wretchedness of the contemporary Czech condition, existential thriller meets love story, gray optimism blends with black reality. The one new feature in Hakl’s prose is of crucial significance, though – action as the only possible solution.

Praise

“Hakl brilliantly describes the world of men who are wasting their lives away.”

— Klára Kubíčková, MF Dnes

“Into the life of a fifty-year-old, dragged down by a safe but dull office job, comes a new woman – and also a new interest in the history of the German RAF. The two central motifs, at least one of which is based on reality, merge and support each other, and from them the author weaves a simple but incredibly powerful story about the moment when an individual finally decides to act.”

— Magnesia Litera jury