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(1962)
Novelist, author of short stories and newspaper columns and playwright

The books of Michal Viewegh have been translated into 21 languages; 3 films have been made based on the author’s work, two more are currently in production, and one book has also been adapted for performance on the stage on many occasions. More than 700,000 copies of Viewegh’s books have been sold in the Czech Republic alone.

No. 1 best-selling Czech author, absolute leader of the sales charts over several years!


Bibliography:

Názory na vraždu (Opinions on a Murder, novella, 1990, 4 editions, over 50,000 copies sold)
A mystery story set in a small central Bohemian town. One summer night during the annual outdoor carnival a young teacher is murdered. The investigation into her death proceeds slowly, and the local residents quickly take on the roles of self-appointed judges; each has his or her own theory, and some are more closely involved with the teacher than appearances would suggest. More than a classic mystery novel, this is a poignant meditation on unrequited love and the meaning of prejudice.

Review:
“This work of prose captures one's attention thanks to the excellence of its style (which includes the narrator maintaining his distance from the action as well as the text itself). This complements perfectly both the composition and the overall intent.”
(Petr Nový, Mladá Fronta)

Báječná léta pod psa (The Wonderful Years of Lousy Living, novel, 1992, 6 editions, over 110,000 copies sold)
The most popular Czech book of the 90's! A wildly comic story about the fate of one ordinary Czech family over the course of 20 years, from the 1960's to the present. At turns humorous, ironic and sentimental, an engaging portrait of their attempts to flee from history (meaning socialism) - or at least to ignore it as long as possible.

Foreign editions:
German (Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag, 1998; Piper, 2000), Hungarian (Jelenkor-Jak-fûzetek, 1994), Dutch (Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, 1995), Hebrew (Eked, 1997), Croatian (Znanje, 1998), Russian (Inostrannaya Literatura, magazin, 1997), Serbian (Stylos, 1999), Slovenian (Delo, newspaper), Italian (Mondadori, 2001), Danish (Gyldendal, 2001), Slovenian (Sanje, 2003), Polish (Swiat Literacki, 2004) and Belarussian (Logvinov, 2006). Excerpt from the novel published in English in THIS SIDE OF REALITY: Contemporary Czech Writing, edited by Alexandra Bűchler (Serpent's Tail Press, UK, 1996).

Rights sold to:
Colibri, Bulgaria

Awards:
Winner of the Jiří Orten Prize, 1993 (prize awarded annually for the best book written by an author under 30 years of age).

Film version:
Film based on the novel premiered in 1997; produced by Space Films, screenplay by Jan Novák. Top ten in box office receipts in the Czech Republic for the year 1997. Winner of the Viewer's Prize at the 1997 Egyptian Film Festival held in Alexandria.

Dramatisation for the stage:
Adapted into a theatre play by the Brno company Husa na provázku, premiered in Bmo in 1996; so far has had seven sold-out seasons in Brno and many sold-out guest performances in Prague.

Review:
“Viewegh's prose is outstandingly refreshing reading, reacting to the world of recent Czech history with an appealing and sometimes bizarre charm, caricatured noblesse and a lot of wit. The depictions of historical tragedies as well as the numbness and stultifying routine of the everyday are sketched very lightly, showing the other side of this world's seemingly perfect and 'wonderful' atmosphere.“
(Vladimír Novotný, MFDnes)

Nápady laskavého čtenáře (Thoughts of a Loving Reader, 1993, 3 editions, over 50,000 copies sold
Literary parodies of 21 works by Czech and world authors, including Milan Kundera, Bohumil Hrabal, Josef Škvorecký, Pavel Tigrid, Ernest Hemingway, Alberto Moravia, Nathalie Saurraute, Henry Miller, Nikos Kazantzakis, Raymond Moody, Eric Segal, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Foreign editions:
Bulgarian (Heron Press - Malka češka biblioteka, 2000)

Review:
“Viewegh chooses masterfully from a lavish palette of many colours – from soft irony, through satire and the grotesque all the way to pitch-black humour.”
(Emil Lukeš, Tvar)

Výchova dívek v Čechách (Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia, 1994, 4 editions, over 90,000 copies sold)
A novel which can be read in at least four ways: as a suggestive story of the life tragedy of a 20-year-old girl; as a witty satire of the current Czech education system; as a "book about writing books"; and finally also as an ironic love story.

Foreign editions:
English (Readers International UK & US, 1997), Dutch (Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, 1996), French (Flammarion, 1997), German (Deuticke, 1998; Piper, 1999), Croatian (Divic, 1997), Hebrew (Eked, 1995), Danish (Gyldendal, 2000), Italian (Mondadori, 1999), Latvian (Tito Alba, 2001), Serbian (Stylos, 1999), Spanish (Metáfora, 2000), Bulgarian (Colibri, 2003), Slovenian (Delo, newspaper 2002; Cankarjeva Zalozba, 2003), Finish (Like, 2004), Belorusian (Arche, magazin, 2004) and Polish (Swiat literacki, 2005).

Awards:
3rd place in the nation-wide survey for Book of the Year, 1994 (sponsored by the Lidové Noviny newspaper, a daily with one of the largest circulations in the Czech Republic). Nominated for the 1999 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Film version:
Film based on the novel, premiered in 1997; produced by the Film Division of Czech Television. Top 15 in box office receipts in the Czech Republic in 1997.

Review:
”This ‘love story’, containing everything that a love story should have, unravels the phenomena of which Viewegh is ‘made’, what endangers and hurts him, what gives sense to his life and what deprives it of sense. Put simply, It is about the permanent danger of losing some kind of order in one’s life (family, marriage, job...), about a crisis that is minor, but still threatens to carry one’s life away and demands to be faced. Viewegh confronts all this by doing what he knows best: telling a clear, easily comprehensible and incredibly funny story.”
(Jiří Peňás, MF Dnes)

Účastníci zájezdu (Tourists on an Excursion, 1996, 4 editions, over 70,000 copies sold
A portrayal of the tragicomic and absurd fates of two dozen people temporarily changed into tourists during their summer vacation on a bus trip to Italy. Though written in the third-person-singular, the content is actually autobiographical. The author describes the misery and banality of human relationships, using a sociologically vibrant sample of Czech tourists of various ages and from various walks of life.

Foreign editions:
Polish (Agave, 2001), Croatian (Divic, 2002), Dutch (Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, 1999), and Italian (Mondadori,). Excerpts from the novel published in English in DAYLIGHT IN THE NIGHTCLUB INFERNO: Czech Fiction from the Post-Kundera Generation, edited by Elena Lappin (Catbird Press US, February 1997).

Rights sold to:
Colibri, Bulgaria; Sanje, Slovenia

Dramatisation for the stage:
Adapted for the theatre by the Bmo "Divadlo In flagranti" company. Premiered in 1998.

Film version:
Premiered in April 2006. Directed by Jiří Vejdělek.

Review:
”Viewegh’s irony and self-irony, the accuracy of his description of human mediocrity and the various cramped situations sketch a picture containing a whole range of grotesque and real heroes. Herein lies the appeal and power of this book.”
(Andrej Halada, Reflex)

Zapisovatelé otcovský lásky (Notes On Fatherly Love, 1998, 2 editions, over 60,000 copies sold
The main themes of this novel are not only the problems of youth and adolescence but also the relationship between children and their parents in a failed marriage. The narration is handled here in sections alternately by the children and the father, each of which differs greatly in style. The author gradually knits their individual views into a well-composed whole.

Foreign editions:
Croatian (Divic, 1998), Hebrew (Eked, 1999), Russian (Inostrannaya Literatura, magazine, 2000), and German (Deuticke, 1999).

Rights sold to:
Zysk i S-ka Wydawnictwo, Poland

Review:
”Michal Viewegh has succeeded in writing exactly the book he intended, and that makes him one of very few contemporary authors who is both a convincing writer and a confident master of words.”
(Filip Tomáš, Právo)

Povídky o manželství a o sexu (Tales of Marriage and Sex, 1999, 2 editions, over 60,000 copies sold)
This volume of short stories discusses the narrator’s loves over seventeen-odd years. From being a timid lover who marries his first girlfriend and eventually divorces her, the hero becomes a man of experience who nevertheless remains incapable of maintaining a long-term, satisfying relationship with a woman. With aloofness and in a kind of caricature, Viewegh has his sexually and socially successful hero consider the causes of his feeling out of place and his frustration, without granting him the courage to leave the vicious circle of deceptive 'erotic abundance'.

Foreign editions:
Macedonian (Tabernakul, 2000), Croatian (Divic, 1999), Serbian (Stylos, 1999) and German (Deuticke, 2004).

Review:
”Without unnecessary bittersweet scenes, these short stories describe the birth of a romance, the gradual waning of emotion and understanding in the routines of a marriage, the break-up of the partners and its reverberations, as well as their post-divorce sexual fluctuation. All this is seen through the eyes of a male hero, a character who approaches Kundera–like scepticism and the ironic attitudes that we recognise from Kundera’s Laughable Loves.” (Petr Hanuška, Aluze)

Švédské stoly aneb Jací jsme (Smorgasbords or: What We´re Like, 2000, over 30, 000 copies sold)
Viewegh's skill at writing supple dialogue and providing precise observations and pungent punch-lines is at its most evident in this book. It is a selection of newspaper columns from 1994-5 and 1999-2000, in which he comments with humour, sometimes with sarcasm, on the world of politics, the gutter press, and commercial television.

Review:
”Viewegh’s newspaper columns are concentrated doses of his skilled use of dialogue, wit and sarcasm and give full rein to his unrivalled ability to analyse the language of contemporary political figures.”
(Josef Chuchma, MF Dnes)

Nové nápady laskavého čtenáře (More Thoughts of a Loving Reader, 2000, 2 editions, nearly 30,000 copies sold)
Seven years after publishing Thoughts of a Loving Reader, the author returns to the genre of literary parody. Wittily, sometimes with sympathy, sometimes with sarcasm, he caricatures the form and style of famous writers from various countries and a broad spectrum of genres, not omitting the critics.

Review:
”Viewegh has lost nothing of his ability to play with the language, his meticulous observation of his colleagues’ worlds, themes, tricks, intellectual clichés, and his cheeky breaking of their untouchable icons in one great caricature.”
(Andrej Halada, Lidové noviny)

Román pro ženy (A Woman's Novel, 2001, over 70,000 copies sold)
Here the female narrator, a twenty-year-old editor who works on a fictive woman’s weekly, candidly assesses her own love affairs. The story provides the author with space for an ironic polemic on the archetypal character so essential to so-called ‘writing for women’ - the ‘ideal man’.

Foreign editions:
German (Deuticke, 2002), Hebrew (Eked, 2001), Croatian (DiVic, 2002), Chinese (Locus, 2003), Slovenian (Sanje, 2005)and Polish (Zysk i S-ka Wydawnictwo, 2005).

Rights sold to:
Ulpius Ház, Hungary; Instar Libri, Italy; Alfa-Narodna Knjiga, Serbia and Montenegro

Film version:
Film based on the novel, premiered in 2005; produced by Nova Tv. Top 1 in box office receipts in the Czech Republic in 2005.

Review:
”All the oh-so-important problems of those passing through the novel with shiny smiles on their lovely faces, who live happily thanks to the correct application of vaginal cream, a mobile phone always to hand and a bit of something to eat, create a mosaic that is more eloquent and truthful on the subject of the Czech mentality than any serious sociological study ever carried out. A Woman’s Novel contains much more truth ‘about us’ than we think and maybe even more than we would like to know.”
(Radim Kopáč, UNI)

Báječná léta s Klausem (The Wonderful Years Under Klaus, 2002, over 50,000 copies sold
Exactly ten years after the publication of the novel Báječná léta pod psa (The Wonderful Years of Lousy Living) , Michal Viewegh presented us with a freely developed sequel. Just like Báječná léta pod psa, this is a slightly autobiographical work of the grotesque in a melancholic tone, in which the reader is reacquainted with Kvido’s rather peculiar family and is introduced to the popular politician Václav Klaus.

Review:
“The popular author’s attack on political and intellectual slyness, manipulation and practices of totalitarianism that are still used today, is much deeper than it seems at first sight. It unravels the shortfalls of society, both mental and emotional, and does this with great skill and intelligent humour.”
(Jan Lukeš, Právo)

Případ nevěrné Kláry (The Case of Unfaithful Klára, 2003, over 60,000 copies sold)
The story begins in the office of private eye Denis Pravda , who specialises in shadowing unfaithful partners and is approached one day by popular writer Norbert Černý. The Case of Unfaithful Klára is not only an artfully formed self-reflecting parody on the life of a so-called successful author, but is above all a cleverly composed tale of love, friendship, and jealousy. The story is set in faraway China and is constructed around elements of the detective novel and a number of unexpected twists.

Foreign editions:
Italian (Instar Libri, 2005)

Rights sold to:
Alfa-Narodna Knjiga, Serbia and Montenegro; Gyldendal, Denmark; Zysk i S-ka Wydawnictwo, Poland

Review:
”One of the reasons Michal Viewegh’s books are so popular amongst readers is the fact that his hand is very deft at depicting the life and institutions we all know very well, so that we can at least easily imagine them. They are vivid sociological and psychological studies of the contemporary Czech middle class.”
(Josef Chuchma, MF Dnes)

Na dvou židlích (Serving Two Masters, 2003, initial printing 12,000)
Three years after the publishing of Smorgasbords or: What We´re Like, Michal Viewegh introduces his second book of newspaper columns with the most popular texts written for Lidové noviny, one of the Czech Republic’s most widely read and most prestigious dailies, between September 2002 and August 2003. The author draws his inspiration from politics and its leading representatives, and also from his marriage, family and many other topics. Forty-three breezily written columns reflect twelve months of life in the Czech Republic with a remarkable feeling for humour and many witty punch-lines.

Review:
“…well-aimed and individually directed diatribes lampooning the mediocrity of our social life. (...) The author does not bet on well-tried means of attracting readers, nor is he afraid to risk missing the target in the execution of his literary escapades.”
Aleš Haman, Lidové noviny

Vybíjená (Playing Pig-in-the-Middle, 2004, 65,000 copies sold)
Over a generous time span, this book follows the varied lives of several high-school classmates, from their teenage growing pains to their early forties. Connoisseurs of the work of the most popular Czech author will find intact his familiar style (the slightly melancholic grotesque), in a tale which deals with friendship, love and destiny, alcohol, beauty and ugliness, and above all with the sadness that slowly penetrates the lives of the ageing characters.

Foreign editions:
German (Deuticke, 2005); Serbian (Alfa-Narodna Knjiga), Slovenian (Sanje)

Rights sold to:
Swiat Literacki, Poland; Innostrannaya Literatura, Russia; Ulpius Ház, Hungary; Colibri, Bulgaria; Profil, Croatia

Award:
Magnesia Litera - Readers' award

Reviews:
"School reunions supply rich pickings for the contemplation of human destinies and unfulfilled desires. While teenage love is reignited, death shows itself in the non-appearance of those classmates who have departed for ever. For those themes which require, in addition to the writer's know-how, a certain experience of life, Viewegh acquits himself admirably. Not only is the composition of the novel is masterly but Viewegh shows himself to be a keen observer of everyday life."
(Aleš Knapp, MF Dnes)

"Playing Pig-in-the-Middle, the latest novel by Michal Viewegh, heralds the author's return to the thoughtful, finely honed prose for which he gained the acclaim of critics and readers alike in the mid Nineties. [...]
Playing Pig-in-the-Middle is more than just a story about former classmates at a grammar school, their friendships and desertions, how they help and harm one another, their marriages and divorces. In a stylish telling which surely owes much to personal experience, Viewegh confronts mid-life crisis as part of a deeper reflection on life's linearity. [...]
The revelation of dramas behind the props of the everyday lead the unwitting reader to thoughts of how many of these dramas are at play behind the faces of those they meet, and have long been meeting, every day of their lives."
(Petr Kukal, stolzova.cz)

"This novel bears all the typical features of Viewegh's style of visualization and characterization, marked with humour and an ironic distance. Playing Pig-in-the-Middle may prove to be a springboard to a creative rebirth; indeed, here Viewegh's art has succeeded better than in some of his previous works in touching important moments of human existence. Without moralizing and by means of a lightly-wielded pen he has invested his work with a warning: how easy it is to squander a life."
(Emil Lukeš, Tvar)

"Viewed alongside his other works, Viewegh's Playing Pig-in-the-Middle can be said to represent something of a turning point. [...] Michal Viewegh has shown us already that he is, at least in the context of Czech literature, an important writer. Playing Pig-in-the-Middle suggests he is on the point of something greater, and this irrespective of context."
(Lukáš Foldyna, Aluze)

Lekce tvůrčího psaní (The Creative Writing Lesson, 2005, initial printing 40,000)
In the words of its author, this intimate psychological novella is "mainly about how difficult it is to write - indeed to experience - a story of real emotion in the Czech Republic". The Creative Writing Lesson is also, of course, an expression of the author's self-consciousness; as if out of nowhere and before the reader's eyes this tale emerges of a teacher of creative writing, a tale which glimpses the fortunes of several of his students, most significantly those of a "magnificent substitute mother". Masterful in the telling, concise in its composition, appreciative of gradation and mystery, deft in its linking of individual motifs: all this testifies to the charm of this treatment in prose of a "crash-course in writing".



Nápady laskavého čtenáře / Responses from a Dear Reader (first edition)


Účastníci zájezdu / The Sightseers (first edition)


Názory na vraždu / Opinions on Murder


Výchova dívek v Čechách / Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia (first edition)


Báječná léta pod psa / The Blissful Years of Lousy Living (first edition)


Zapisovatelé otcovský lásky / Registration Clerks of a Father's Love


Nápady laskavého čtenáře / Responses from a Dear Reader (second edition)


Povídky o manželství a sexu / Tales of Matrimony and Sex (first edition)


Švédské stoly aneb Jací jsme / Smorgasbords or: What We're like


Nové nápady laskavého čtenáře / More Responses from a Dear Reader


Výchova dívek v Čechách / Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia (second edition)


Účastníci zájezdu / The Sightseers (second edition)


Povídky o manželství a sexu / Tales of Matrimony and Sex (second editionj)


Román pro ženy / The Woman's Novel


Nápady laskavého čtenáře / Responses from a Dear Reader (third edition)


Báječná léta s Klausem / The Blissful Years Under Klaus


Případ nevěrné Kláry / The Case of Unfaithful Klára


Vybíjená / Playing Pig-in-the-Middle


Lekce tvůrčího psaní / The Creative Writing Lesson