The Polish Book Institute

A translation of Aleksander Kaczorowski’s book Praski elementarz (“The Prague Reader”) has been published in the Czech Republic. The publication of the book translated by Martin Veselka was supported by the Book Institute as part of the ©POLAND Translation Programme.

The book Pražský slabikář, as reads the title of the Czech translation of the book, has been recently published by the Host publishing house.

The Prague Reader is said to be the best Polish guide to the capital city of the Czech Republic. In addition, it’s a guide that is not really a guide - Kaczorowski's book is rather a collection of essays dedicated to the Czech capital and to the most important Czech writers, such as Franz Kafka, Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, Jiří Weil, Bohumil Hrabal, Josef Škvorecki, Milan Kundera, Ota Pavel, and Václav Havel. The phenomenon of the book, however, is that it is very personal - writing not so much from the perspective of Czechs and Prague citizens, but rather from the perspective of the author’s attitude towards them. No wonder the Czech publisher was interested in what a Pole had to say about their country.

Aleksander Kaczorowski is a journalist, translator, essayist, and one of Poland's best-known Czechophiles. He has worked for many newspapers and magazines, including 'Gazeta Wyborcza', 'Newsweek Polska', and 'Forum'; he is currently editor-in-chief of the English-language quarterly magazine 'Aspen Review Central Europe'. He is the author of many books, including Praskie łowy (“Hunting in Prague”), Hrabal. Słodka apokalipsa (“Hrabal. A Sweet Apocalypse”), and Havel. Zemsta bezsilnych (“Havel. The Revenge of the Powerless”). He has translated, among other things, works by Bohumil Hrabal, Josef Škvorecký, and Egon Bondy into Polish.