It’s interesting in the last few years how much literature from that part of the world has started to reach us, Pushkin Press has done a lot of course for Austro-Hungarian writers, some of them Czech. I’ve just started, this morning coincidentally enough, Jarmila by Ernst Weiss who is a Czech writer (and another of the now not so well known Central European writers that Pushkin has brought back to us).

Also in that part of the world, I wrote up recently the excellent Fraulein Else by Arthur Schnitzler, there’s a strong literary tradition in the region which is well worth exploring. You’ve a lot of good books ahead of you Trevor if you follow this path a little.

Interesting review, not sure it’s a book for me, I’m a bit fantasied out at the moment, even literary fantasy.

Regarding Czech authors, I’ve written up Hrabal’s Closely Observed Trains over on my blog, here: http://pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/category/bohumil-hrabal/ – it’s a good novel and well worth reading. I second Deucekindred’s recommendation.

Thanks for the recommendation to Twisted Spoon Press, Stewart. I checked out their website and think their covers are reason enough to buy them!

I’ve been meaning, for ages now, to feature a few of their titles on my blog, as I have books by Paul Leppin, Emil Hakl, and Vitezslav Nezval. Should get around to it once I get through the titles provisionally taking up my time for the next few weeks. And they are very nice books: quite individual, all praise slipped into the book as a tiny strip of paper rather than printed over the artful covers.