Other, Poetry, Prose

Michal Ajvaz’s first two books – the poetry collection Vražda v hotelu Intercontinental (1989) and short stories Návrat starého varana (1991) – are here published in a single, nicely edited volume, furnished with the author’s afterword on re-reading his old books: “Reading after many years the texts in my first two books, I’m reminded of the atmosphere of the second half of the 1980s in which they originated, an atmosphere of timelessness permeated with the prescience of change, the magical reign of space over time; images emerge of endless wanderings down the streets of Prague, of sitting in Prague cafés and bistros of those days of old…”