Total Fears

Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997) was one of the most important stylists in post-war European literature. He is internationally renowned for such works as I Served the King of England, Too Loud a Solitude, and Closely Watched Trains, on which Jiri's Menzel's Oscar-winning film was based. At the beginning of 1989, after a long literary silence, Hrabal began to write short, single texts, which he considered his "lyrical reportage." Giving these texts the form of letters to the muse of his later years, Hrabal chronicles the momentous events leading up to and following the velvet revolution in the palavering, stream of consciousness style for which he became famous.