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Jaroslav Pížl (b. 1961)
Poet, novelist

Jarolav Pížl is the author of five collections of poetry which are marked by a peculiar imagery and a keen sense in his verse for the spoken word. His latest work, however, is a novel.

Sběratelé knih [Book Collectors]
(novel, 2004, 216 pp, hardback, ISBN 80-7227-195-4)

Two books in one: the first book comprises the story of collector (or to be more precise, burglar) Jiří Ryska, and it has all that we might expect of an action-packed narrative; into this are inserted long extracts from Free Fall in Tahúlú, the story of Tristan Ab, found and claimed by Ryska; this second book is based on principles of science fiction and hints at the mystical secret of life and death.

Reviews:
"Pížl meets all the requirements for the writing of so-called popular literature: language which lives and breathes, a keen eye for detail which he expresses succinctly and to great effect, great ideas, and the ability to invoke tension in the reader."
(Lukáš Foldyna, Host)

"I like books in which they themselves appear in the main role; subconsciously perhaps, I approach such books in a positive frame of mind, all the more so if their plot is veiled in secrecy and it is stocked with a detective storyline. The wide popularity of such books is testified to by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, which has long held the top spot in the bestseller lists. I would put Book Collectors, which is published by the Petrov house, in the same category. [...] We can claim with confidence that Pížl's entry into the world of fiction is a success."
(Pavel Kotrla, Týdeník Rozhlas)

"Pížl's novel is characterized by tension, adventure, fantasy and the smell of old print. [...] If you like the novels of Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose, Baudolino, The Island of the Day Before), the works of Miloš Urban (The Seven Churches, Hastrman, The Shadow of the Cathedral) or you enjoyed Jonáš Tokarský's Alchemist's Child, if it's your thing to be conducted around everyday realities in which secrets lie behind every corner, and if my recommendation carries any weight with you, I would say that Book Collectors is just the book for you."
(Josef Prokop, Reflex)

Notes:
Sample translations into English available on these web pages, translations into Polish and Hungarian available on request.



Sběratelé knih / Book Collectors