A unique saint

Following his “diary” from the concentration camps, Pavel Taussig introduces himself to readers as a short story author. His domain is primarily irony and satire.

With these weapons, he effectively, yet in a cultured and intelligent way, satirises the various -isms of the schizophrenic era of Czech and Slovak history, whose contradictions, absurd glorifications, mistaken ideologies, and general nonsense were the source of many incomprehensible situations. The short stories are so authentic and credible that not only those who remember the times will have no doubt about their real basis. They are as absurd as the era from which they emerged.

Pavel Taussig's literary humoresques, originally published in 1985 by the most prestigious exile publishing house, 68 Publishers, are stories told in a colourful language, crafted with aphoristic precision and interwoven with irony and sarcasm.