Closely Observed Trains

Bohumil Hrabal

Jun 2014 · Hachette UK

About this eBook

For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front; the problem of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence; and the awesome scandal of Dispatcher Hubicka's gross misuse of the station's official stamps upon the telegraphist's anatomy. Beside these, Milos's part in the plan for the ammunition train seems a simple affair.

CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel film of the 'Prague Spring', is a classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism which fully justifies Hrabal's reputation as one of the best Czech writers of today.

Ratings and reviews

Bohumil Hrabal is a master of the art of language. In this book, he describes the period of the Nazi occupation of the Czech Republic through the eyes of the young Milos. Hrabal always knew how to perfectly balance tragedy and comic events. Hubička's philosophy of life makes life easier in the most difficult moments of the country's history and of Miloš's life. However, the author does not forget to remind the readers in what period people live through short, raw glances at the world around them

About the author

Bohumil Hrabal was born in 1914 in Brno-Zidenice, Czechoslovakia. Receiving a degree in law, he worked as a stagehand, postman, clerk and baler of wastepaper. He later lived and wrote in Prague.