Xavier Hanotte
presents the work of Škvorecký Josef (1924-2012), a great contemporary czech writer
Born in 1960 in Mont-Sur-Marchienne, Hanotte Xavier is one of the most interesting Belgian writers of his generation. His detective novels featuring Inspector Barthélemy Dussert from Brussels have been very successful (Manière noire, 1995, In secret injustices, 1998). Translator of English and Dutch, Belgian novelist also shows great interest in Czech culture as shown by a survey of Dussert, The Jenufa knife (2008). It is for this reason that talk about one of his favorite writers, Josef Škvorecký Monday, December 10, 2012 at the bookstore EuropaNova, with Laurent Beghin.
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Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký is from the North-East Bohemia. His first novel, Zbabělci, 1958 (The Cowards) caused a sensation by his non-conformism: using the vernacular and slang youth Škvorecký says wryly liberation of the city by the Red Army in 1945. Accused of “cynicism” by advocates of socialist realism, the book is quickly removed from bookstores. Specialist in English literature, and especially American, Škvorecký translated Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, James, … and resurfaced, thanks to the new “thaw”, with a beautiful new of love destroyed by mediocrity, Emöke Legenda, 1963 (The Legend Emöke, Gallimard 1968). Other novels and stories will be published in the 60s, but Lvíče, 1969 (The cub, Gallimard 1972) – mixing love, intrigue censorship and police – will be the last of his books to be published in Prague. The end result of the Prague Spring Škvorecký exile in Canada, in Toronto, where he founded in 1971 with his wife Zdena Salivarová a Czech publishing house, 68 Publishers, which specializes in the publication of the exiled Czech authors or reduced silenced by the regime, to give them a voice, first in the original language, then relayed by English translations. Currently, the work of Josef Škvorecký is available in French by Editions Gallimard: The armored squadron (1969, republished by Folio), Miracle in Bohemia (1978, reissued 2012), A cool season (2012) and Éditions du Rocher : Two murders in my Double Life (2001).
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Fee : 5 euros (drink ticket included). Free entrance for students under 26.