On solar

Post-revolutionary Czechia through the lens of its most impressive short stories

The Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar once said that while a novel can beat a reader on points, a short story must deliver a knockout blow. It’s a bit of a forceful analogy, but an accurate one – a good short story aims straight for the chin or the solar plexus; it’s a single, fluid strike that sends you to your knees. It is all the more surprising, then, that readers still find themselves in an endless clinch with novels. This anthology of the best that has emerged from the post-Velvet Revolution short story ring proves that while it may be a short story, it's definitely not a small story.

Writer Jan Němec read through more than two hundred author collections, containing some three thousand short stories, to select thirty for this single volume that everyone should know. The result is not only a fresh outline of post-revolutionary literature but also a testament to a changing society.

Ajvaz, Balabán, Bažantová, Bellová, Beran, Borkovec, Dousková, Dutka, Epstein, Fischerová, Hakl, Hanišová, Hořava, Hradecký, Kahuda, Kaprálová, Kratochvil, Martínek, Myšková, L. Němec, Pazdera Payne, Pitínský, Platzová, Šesták, Šindelka, Štětina, Urban, Valová, Viewegh, Vybíralová

The short story as a literary form has the power to affect the reader more immediately and intensely than a novel, and this selection of the best post-revolutionary Czech short stories proves that the genre deserves just as much attention as longer prose.
— The editors at Host

The idea came to me sometime early last year. I love short stories; they are behind some of my greatest reading experiences, and I’ve always been sorry that they are somewhat looked down upon. “They’re just short stories,” I’ve heard many times. I’ll show you! More precisely, I’ll show you that short stories can be thrilling and, what's more, they create a surprising picture of our present day.
— Jan Němec, editor