Czech Republic (Czechia): Literature & Writers

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, "The Trial" is a terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.

When Jakub Procházka is sent into space to examine a cosmic dust cloud covering Venus, it may be a solo suicide mission. Dreaming of becoming a national hero and desperate to atone for his father’s sins as a Communist informer, he leaves his beloved wife behind and launches into the galaxy. But things aboard spaceship JanHus1 quickly turn weird, and, to make matters worse, he soon learns that his wife has disappeared without a trace back on Earth...
Rich with warmth, suspense and surprise, "Spaceman of Bohemia" is an exuberant delight from start to finish.

"The Joke" centers on Ludvik Jahn, a sarcastic man prone to jokes, and the way his actions affect those around him. The novel is told from four perspectives - that of Jahn and three people he comes into contact with: his frequent victim Helena, devout Christian Kostka, and Moravian patriot Jaroslav. The book serves as a satire of the repressive nature of the Czech Communist party and explores the ways in which small actions can spiral through a lifetime.

This is a collection of Jan Neruda's intimate, wry, bittersweet stories of life among the inhabitants of the Little Quarter of nineteenth-century Prague. These finely tuned and varied vignettes established Neruda as the quintessential Czech nineteenth-century realist, the Charles Dickens of Prague becoming ever more aware of itself as a Czech rather than an Austrian city.

One of the classics of twentieth-century theater, this brilliantly conceived and exquisitely executed play looks to a future in which all workers are automatons, or "robots" - a word this play made a permanent part of the language. The robots revolt when their manufacturing formula is changed to make them more irritable and to give them the human ability to hate, and the resulting catastrophe makes for a powerful and deeply moving theatrical experience.

The Good Soldier Švejk is an unfinished satirical dark comedy novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, published in 1921–1923, about a good-humored, simple-minded, middle-aged man who appears to be enthusiastic to serve Austria-Hungary in World War I (from Wikipedia)