Neighbours and others

We all have our neighbours. We peer over the garden fence to see what strange tomatoes are growing next door, we take in the smell of Sunday goose at the door or, with a mug on the wall, we listen to why the divorce is about to happen again behind the panel. Oskar Měšt'áček, a Czech writer and emigrant who moved to the picturesque Bavarian town five years ago, also has his neighbours. In the cul-de-sac Im Krähwinkel (in Czech we would probably say "Where the foxes say good night"), he experiences seemingly ordinary neighbourhood tussles, but gradually he also uncovers many dark or sad secrets, oddities and vices that hide behind the masks of the orderly citizens of the Alpine resort. Here we find a former (and current) fascist, a fake count, a crazy singer or displaced Sudeten Germans and many other neighbours. And it is from here that a series of tragic or tragicomic stories unfold, told with a slightly ironic but also self-ironic distance, which together create a compelling story with an unexpected punchline. But watch out! We're somebody's neighbors too!

Ota Filip (born. 1930) is one of the leading figures of Czech exile literature. After graduating from high school, he changed many jobs, was convicted of subverting the republic in 1970, and a few years later was forcibly exiled to Germany. He is the recipient of numerous German honours and awards, and a leading columnist and commentator. His books are published in Germany, France, Italy and other countries. He lives in the subalpine town of Murnau. Among his most important works are the novels The Ascension of Lojzek Lapáček from Silesian Ostrava (1974 samizdat, 1994), Kavárna Slavia (1993), The Eighth or Unfinished Biography (2007) and the recently translated novel Grandfather and the Cannon (2009).

Book Details:
Author: Ota FILIP
Year of publication: 2015
ISBN: 80-7294-095-3
Number of pages: 232