As Czechoslovakia's communist regime expired in 1989, Hrabal began to write after a long literary silence. He called his short individual texts lyrical reportage in the form of letters addressed to Dubenka (April Gifford), a visiting American student who became the muse of his later years. In the...

In Europe, taking a walk is a cultural phenomenon having an almost mystical import. It connects physical activity with meditation, silence within amid the tumult without. Taking its cue both from Joyce's Ulysses and Hrabal's stream of anecdote, Of Kids & Parents is about a father and son taking a wa...