Jáchym Topol

Gargling with Tar

Trans. Marianne Canavaggio
Zone cirque Zone cirque
Zone cirque
Éd. Noir sur blanc, 2009, 288 pp
Language: French
Foreign rights:
Pluh
http://www.pluh.org
info@pluh.org
Prose

French edition of Jáchym Topol’s Kloktat dehet.

Description from the English edition:

Czechoslovakia, 1968. The Soviet troops have just invaded the country and, for the young orphan Ilya, life is suddenly turned on its head. At first there is relief that the mean-spirited nuns who run the orphanage have been driven out by the Communists, but as the children are left to fend for themselves, order and routine quickly give way to brutality and chaos, and Ilya finds himself drawn into the violence, both committing murder in order to save his best friend and forced to witness the death of his disabled brother. When the troops return, the orphans are given military training and, with his first-hand knowledge of the local terrain, Ilya becomes a guide to a Soviet tank commander, leading him ever deeper into a macabre world of random cruelty, moral compromise, and lasting shame.

Information in French

Book was nominated for the European Book Award

Information about the original Czech edition

Kloktat dehet

Other selected published translations (7)

Spoelen met teerzeep Dutch

Zirkuszone German

Strefa cyrkowa Polish

Gárgaras con alquitrán Spanish

Å gurgle tjære Norwegian

Gargling with Tar English

Artisti e animali del Circo socialista Italian

Zone cirque
Éd. Noir sur blanc, 2009, 288 pp
Language: French
Foreign rights:
Pluh
http://www.pluh.org
info@pluh.org