A state cover-up forms the basis for a sinister fairy tale in Jonathan Ledgard’s novel Jonathan Ledgard’s first novel, Giraffe, is a many-faceted work that reads like a dark Central European bedtime story at times and like a spare Cold War thriller at others. The book, which grew out of his discovery of a secret… Keep Reading
A legendary work returns to Prague More than 350 years after it was looted from Prague by the Swedish Army during the Thirty Years’ War, a famous medieval text will return to its native land, though only temporarily. The Codex Gigas often referred to by its sexier name, the Devil’s Bible — should be on… Keep Reading
Two old friends to chat in public about crossing borders It’s not clear if Vaclav Havel is a bigger fan of Lou Reed or if Reed is a bigger fan of Havel. The two of them will be together for Stage Talk, as the series of public conversations at Svandovo divadlo is called. When rock… Keep Reading
Too sexy for their art In a world gone mad with retro, at least one band does the ’80s justice. The reigning archdukes of British pop, Franz Ferdinand, are bringing their sexually potent mix of punk-rock laced with disco to Prague, preceded by an avalanche of hype. The band has been ordained as nothing less… Keep Reading
Author claims scoop; Czech experts doubt links to aristocratic past Whoever wins the race to the White House this year, the president of the United States is sure to be a direct descendant of the ancient rulers of Bohemia, according to one researcher. Miloslav Rechcigl, a U.S. author of Czech origin, says he has traced… Keep Reading
Bringing a new graphic art form to Czech audiences is a job for superheroes Anyone who still thinks that comics are just kid stuff should spend a few minutes with Martin Trojan. Actually, that’s all the time Trojan can spare these days. He’s hard at work at his Comics Centrum shop and publishing company, which… Keep Reading
A Review of My Life with Janáček: the Memoirs of Zdenka Janáčková. Translated and Edited by John Tyrrell (London, 1998). By Thomas D. Svatos The explosive artist whose compositional imagination was primed by those melodic fragments of speech he could notate in seconds, one of the greatest musical dramatists opera has ever seen, Leoš Janáček… Keep Reading
Frantisek Josef Geisler was studying agriculture at Brno University in 1939 when Hitler’s troops invaded Czechoslovakia. Determined not to fight in the armies of the Third Reich, he was one of many who fled the country with the intention of joining the Allied forces. By 1941, the former student was a soldier in both the… Keep Reading
Born in Prague in late 1947, three months before Czechoslovakia went communist, baby Helen Epstein emigrated legally in mid-1948 with her parents, Kurt and Franciska, who, as their families’ sole survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, already had been granted entry into the United States. Waiting for them in New York were the Herbens: Helen’s… Keep Reading
