Transfigured Night

In late 1992, Leonora Marty, a choreographer and dancer who fled the Communist state decades earlier, returns to Prague. She meets old classmates, wanders the city, and visits museums. When she is approached by Thomas Asperger, a descendant of ethnic Germans driven from Czechoslovakia after World War II, she must confront her relationships with the city, her homeland, and her new romance. The novel, written in German and published in 1995, provides a cultural tour of Prague and is a masterpiece of Czech literature.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 125 pages
Publication date: 19 April 2023
Publisher: Karolinum,Nakladatelstvi Univerzity Karlovy,Czech Republic

In late 1992, three years after the Velvet Revolution and as Czechoslovakia was on the verge of dissolving into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, choreographer and dancer Leonora Marty, who had fled the Communist state decades earlier, returned to Prague. Having completed her ballet of The Makropulos Affair, the famous dancer reunites with old classmates, explores the city amidst bustling tourists, and visits the most obscure and unvisited museums. When she is approached by Thomas Asperger, a descendant of ethnic Germans driven from Czechoslovakia after World War II, she is forced to confront three intertwined relationships: her connection with the city of her youth, her homeland's relationship with its past, and her newfound romance with this German admirer.

Written in German and published in 1995, by an author whose life mirrored her protagonists, the novel offers a cultural tour of Prague. Drawing inspiration from the operas of Leoš Janácek as well as the novels of Thomas Pynchon, Transfigured Night is considered a masterpiece of Czech literature, showcasing the diverse cultural heritage of this nation.

Dimension: 191 x 127 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9788024651729