Why I Write?: And Other Early Prose Pieces
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Taken from the period when Bohumil Hrabal shifted his focus from poetry to prose, these stories—many written in school notebooks, typed and read aloud to friends, or published in samizdat—often showcase raw experiments in style that would define his later works. Others intriguingly utilize forms the author would never pursue again. Featuring the first appearance of key figures from Hrabal’s later writings, such as his real-life Uncle Pepin, who would become a character in his later fiction and is credited here as a coauthor of one piece, the book also contains stories that Hrabal would go on to cannibalize for some of his most famous novels. All together, Why I Write? offers readers the chance to explore this liminal phase of Hrabal’s writing. Expertly interpreted by award-winning Hrabal translator David Short, this collection comprises some of the last remaining prose works by Hrabal to be translated into English. A treasure trove for Hrabal devotees, Why I Write? allows us to see clearly why this great prose master was, as described by Czech writer and publisher Josef Škvorecký, “fundamentally a lyrical poet.”
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Bohumil Hrabal (1914–97) was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia and studied law – although, as Josef Škvorecký wrote, “he never had anything to do with any bar other than those where Pilsner beer is served.” He spent decades working manual labor before turning to writing and earning admirers such as Milan Kundera and Philip Roth; by his death he was ranked among the greatest Czech writers of the twentieth-century. His novel Closely Watched Trains was turned into an Academy Award-winning film. English translations of his novels have been published by Northwestern University Press, Abacus, Doubleday, Vintage, Simon and Schuster, Harcourt Brace, New York Review of Books, Archipelago, and New Directions. Why I Write? is the third book by Hrabal that Karolinum Press has published.
David Short is a retired teacher of Czech and Slovak, the author of a popular Czech textbook, the coauthor of a number of publications in the field of linguistics, and a prolific translator from Czech. He was awarded the Jiří Theiner Prize for his significant contribution to the dissemination and promotion of Czech literature abroad.
