Michal Ajvaz
(1949)
Novelist, poet, essayist and translator
Philosophically and aesthetically erudite writer, Michal Ajvaz constructs his texts as one would build a house – he piles the levels of his story up one on top of the other, which is similar to the concept of computer games or to he picture of a Dutch lady depicted on a can of cocoa, holding a can of cocoa with a picture of a Dutch lady... Michal Ajvaz makes philosophical excursions along with linguistic explanations, lectures on literary theory, scenes on the verge of phantasmagoria, bizarre findings from animal or plant world and mysterious journeys – all this actually follows a single path with a single purpose: destabilising the absolute trust in human way of exploring the world, the ideas we create about ourselves and the environment surrounding us.
Exceptional author not just for demanding readers.
Selected bibliography:
Druhé město (The Other City, novel, 1993, 2005 )
This distinctive novel is set in various shadowy settings about Prague, such as the belfry of St. Nicholas’s church, Petřín hill, a Malá strana café, Café Slavia , and the large Klementinum historical library. These are the places where a lonely young man walks at the ghostly hours of night and where flashes of the symbolic Other City emerge mingled with the reality of old Prague . All this is veiled in a dreamy atmosphere, the mysterious contents of which draw the narrator like a moth to a flame.
Published:
Azbuka, Russia, 2004
Pogranicze, Poland, 2005
Rights sold to:
Dalkey Archive Press, U.S.A.
Kalligram, Hungary
Tyrkysový orel (Turquoise Eagle, prose, 1997)
This volume contains the novels Bílí mravenci (White Ants) and Zénonovy paradoxy (Zeno’s Paradoxes) , both of which succeed in carrying the reader away to worlds that are different, strange, unusually interesting and attractive, and which reach beneath the surface of everyday life.
The narrator encounters people who tell him life stories beyond the bounds of our experience, thus creating a space for adventure. In White Ants indecipherable motifs, such as disturbing sounds, the melody of an unknown musical instrument, an ancient script or a strange type of ant are all sources of anxiety.
In Zeno´s Paradoxes, life is also reflected as a confusion of oppressive games. A student of philosophy here recounts a hallucinatory story about a city located in the middle of the ocean, populated by gods and demons.
Rights sold to:
Azbuka, Russia
Profil, Croatia
Návrat starého varana (Return of the Old Komodo Dragon, 2000, collection of poems, prose)
This volume contains the author’s poetry debut – a collection called Vražda v hotelu Intercontinental (Murder in the Intercontinental Hotel, first published in 1989), together with a collection of short stories , Návrat starého varana (first published in 1991). Though one part of this volume is a collection of verse and the other short stories, the union is not inorganic. The fundamental structural principle is the same in both: the logically real space of Prague is disrupted by fantastic ideas that, somewhat surprisingly, do not disrupt the illusion of reality.
Published:
Vražda v hotelu Intercontinental – Pogranicze, Poland, 2205
Návrat starého varana – Kijarat, Hungary, 2004; Pogranicze, Poland, 2005;
Rights sold to:
Azbuka, Russia
Zlatý věk, (Golden Age, 2002, novel)
An imaginary travelogue or a combination of cultural and ethnological fiction that is without doubt Michal Ajvaz’s most important literary work. Hypothetically, it opens a whole new stage of the author’s work in which the “other world” is revealed to the extent that it actually becomes the “first one”. This time the story is not set in the shadowy corners of magical Prague; here the author invites us on a journey to an island where a sense of solidarity has evolved which is alien to the life of our European or European-American rational and pragmatic civilisation. It is a totally open solidarity, based on principles of chaos and destruction of all signs of totalitarianism in our language and thought.
Rights sold to:
Azbuka, Russia
Editions du Panama, France
Dalkey Archive Press, U.S.A.
Prázdné ulice (Empty Streets, novel, 2004)
The novel is set in Prague in 1999. The narrator finds on a rubbish tip on the edge of the city an object whose function is unknown to him. It might be a tool, an emblem, a statue, even a letter from a strange alphabet. It transpires that the object is connected somehow with the mysterious disappearance of a young girl. The narrator searches for the girl while trying to work out the meaning of the unknown object; he feels sure that the object holds the key to the girl's disappearance. His quest takes him to various places, including coffee bars, porter's offices, stations and luxury villas of the nouveaux riches. He digs up several clues and hears talk which connects the object with the girl. The stories transport the reader to New York, an unnamed small town in France, the mountain resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps, Greek islands in the Aegean, South America and Afghanistan. But still the clues do not form a meaningful whole ...
Awards:
Jaroslav Seifert Prize, 2005
Reviews:
"In the context of Czech fiction today, the writing of Michal Ajvaz is a delicious rarity. [...] The themes of Ajvaz's latest novel also make it a highly entertaining read."
(Viktor Šlajchrt, Respekt)
"What we are reading here is the beautiful work of a supreme acrobat, replete with motifs, intrigue, destinies, an infectious joy in the telling, a feast of stories."
(Zdenko Pavelka, Salon)
"In his novel Empty Streets, Michal Ajvaz gives us a story so captivating that it is almost impossible to tear oneself away from it. [...] Without doubt, this is one of the literary events of the season."
(Jiří Zizler, Literární noviny)
"Ajvaz's prose is a specimen of that consummate, epic, creative ability to invent a fictional world in which the reader can seek refuge from the perils of reality."
(Aleš Haman, Tvar)
Reviews of Michal Ajvaz´s older works:
“Michal Ajvaz is definitely one of the leading authors of Czech imaginative prose today.”
Jan Gabriel, MF Dnes
“In the context of contemporary Czech prose, Michal Ajvaz really is a rare phenomenon.”
Jiří Peňás, Respekt
“Ajvaz is a well-known and highly erudite author, and his erudition and powers of observation combine to great effect with a type of playful foolishness. His works of prose are like virgins with an ancestry that is both wise and childish.”
Karel Milota, Literární noviny
Notes:
Many translations of the works of Michal Ajvaz have been published in various anthologies of Czech literature and in magazines worldwide, especially in English and German.
Sample translations into various languages are available from Petrov Publishers upon request; English and German translations are available on these web pages.
Links:
Jonathan Bolton: Reading Michal Ajvaz, Context, issue 17, May 2005, Illinois, U.S.A.
http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no17/ajvaz.html .
Druhé město/The Other City (second edition)
Tyrkysový orel / Turquoise Eagle
Návrat starého varana / Return of the Old Komodo Dragon
Prázdné ulice/Empty Streets
