
The Arsonist
Egon Hostovsky(Author)
Twisted Spoon Press
Published on 5. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
180 pages
978-80-88628-10-1 (ISBN)
Description
Awarded the Czechoslovak State Prize for Literature in 1936, The Arsonist explores the world of youth against the backdrop of a small eastern Bohemian border town being menaced by an invisible firebug. Time and fire, their ability to reshape and destroy, are central. Encoded in echo, wind, and smoke -- in the gesture and in the whisper -- the true nature of events is too intangible and fleeting, too pregnant with the unknown, to provide any genuine certainty, and this is the real source of the townsfolk's terror. Their misguided attempts to identify the elusive arsonist ultimately reveal the emptiness and inflexibility of their own lives. One of the most distinctive voices in 20th-century Czech letters, Hostovský's mix of mysticism, irony, and wit, all leavened by the influence of Expressionism on his early work, results in a richly textured narrative amid an atmosphere of growing peril that serves as a harbinger of the catastrophe to come. This is the first English translation.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Prague
Czech Republic
Product notice
With flaps
Illustrations
2 black and white
Dimensions
Height: 192 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
268 gr
ISBN-13
978-80-88628-10-1 (9788088628101)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Egon Hostovsky
The Arsonist
Book
01/1997
Twisted Spoon Press
€33.61
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Egon Hostovský (1908-73) was one of the most distinctive voices in 20th-century Czech literature. He was born to a Jewish family in the northeastern Bohemian town of Hronov. Throughout the 1930s he served as editor in the Prague publishing house Melantrich while publishing a number of novels during this period. These were translated at the time into other European languages and established Hostovský as one of the leading Czech writers of his generation. Emigrating to the US in 1950, he worked as a Czech lanaguate teacher and editor for Radio Free Europe. He died in Montclair, New Jersey.