Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Twisted Spoon Press

Twisted Spoon Press, based in Prague, is a great publisher of European (primarily Central and Eastern European) literature in English.

This fall, Of Kids & Parents by Emil Hakl, translated from the Czech by Marek Tomin will be published in the U.S. Hakl was born in Prague in 1958 and has published a volume of poetry, three novels, and two collections of short stories. Of Kids & Parents was awarded the Magnesia Litera Book of the Year prize in 2003 and was adapted into a feature film.

This description is from the Twisted Spoon website:

Taking its cue both from Joyce's Ulysses and Hrabal's freely associating stream of anecdote, Of Kids & Parents is about a father and son taking a walk through Prague, over the course of which, and in the pubs and bars they stop into, their personal lives are revealed as entwined with the past sixty years of upheaval in their corner of Europe. One's "small history" is shown to be inseparable from the large history played out on the world's stage: families are uprooted, relationships fail, jobs are gained or lost, and still life goes on. Hakl's genius is his ability to mesh the two into a seamless flow of dialogue.

Check out this work and their other interesting titles at the Twisted Spoon Press web site.

1 comment:

Will said...

I can recommend their title Baradla Cave, a novel by Eva Svankmajerova, wife of filmmaker Jan Svankmajer's wife (last names are spelled differently).

I particularly love Twisted Spoon books for their incredible design. Baradla Cave actually has full-color images sprinkled through the text, which is rarely done by American or British presses (due to printing costs). Many TP books have surprising 'bonuses' like this for readers.