{"product_id":"mr-kafka-and-other-tales-from-the-time-of-the-cult-9780811224802","title":"Mr. Kafka: And Other Tales from the Time of the Cult","description":"Never before published in English, the stories in \u003cem\u003eMr. Kafka and Other Tales from the Time of the Cult\u003c\/em\u003e were written mostly in the 1950s and present the Czech master Bohumil Hrabal at the height of his powers. The stories capture a time when Czech Stalinists were turning society upside down, inflicting their social and political experiments on mostly unwilling subjects. These stories are set variously in the gas-lit streets of post-war Prague; on the raucous and dangerous factory floor of the famous Poldi steelworks where Hrabal himself once worked; in a cacophonous open-air dance hall where classical and popular music come to blows; at the basement studio where a crazed artist attempts to fashion a national icon; on the scaffolding around a decommissioned church. Hrabal captures men and women trapped in an eerily beautiful nightmare, longing for a world where \"humor and metaphysical escape can reign supreme.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWilson, Paul:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Paul Wilson has translated books by Václav Havel, Bohumil Hrabal, Ivan Klima and Josef Skvorecký. He lives in Canada.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHrabal, Bohumil:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eBohumil Hrabal\u003c\/strong\u003e (1914-1997) was born in Moravia. He is the author of such classics as \u003cem\u003eClosely Watched Trains\u003c\/em\u003e (made into an Academy-Award winning film by Jiri Menzel), \u003cem\u003eThe Death of Mr. Baltisberger\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eI Served the King of England\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eToo Loud a Solitude\u003c\/em\u003e. He fell to his death from the fifth floor of a Prague hospital, apparently trying to feed the pigeons.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50461265232146,"sku":"9780811224802","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7754bd86-b00b-4cfe-b5e4-815358fbf616.jpg?v=1730061804","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/mr-kafka-and-other-tales-from-the-time-of-the-cult-9780811224802","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}