Bohemian Tales - a novel - ebook

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Historical Novel - In the summer of 1967, in Czechoslovakia, as Karel Skodaček, approaching his thirties, questions the disappearance of his father when the Nazis invaded Southern Bohemia, he is offered a new job at the University of Prague. Czechoslovakia is experiencing significant political changes that will lead to the Prague Spring. Karel’s life is irrevocably changed when he discovers repressed family secrets. Following this, he must make a decision that will upend his life. Told in the first person, Karel’s story is not just about a distant country; his emotions are universal. It explores the quest for truth, the pain of loss, and the hope for a better future.

It’s a story close to my  heart, and in some ways some of the narrator’s personal experiences of living in a new country mirror my own. I started writing “Bohemian Tales” in 1982, while I was still in school in France, at the age of 16. In history class, I learned about the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the Prague Spring of 1968, which inspired me to write a story set in that period. My interest in Franz Kafka also fueled my desire to set a novel in Prague. Being born in Constance, Germany (known in Czech as Kostnice), not far from the Konzilhaus where Jan Hus was tried in 1415, I have always had an interest in Czech history and culture. All this triggered a long period of research for my first novel. I wanted “Bohemian Tales” to sound as authentic as possible.

A first draft was completed in German in 1989, while I was witnessing, through the media, the revolutions in Eastern Europe that led to the fall of the Iron Curtain. I put the manuscript aside to focus on my studies at the University of Montpellier. With the return of democracy in the Czech Republic, it became easier to find documentation. Upon arriving in Northern Ireland, I took up my manuscript again to rework it in English. When I finished this version in 1999, it was over 700 pages long and it became clear that it needed to be revised to make the novel less dense. It was at this time that Karel’s country of exile became Austria instead of Germany, due to the many historical and cultural ties, and also because the film “The Third Man” fascinated me. Vienna became my residence for three years, which helped me a lot in writing several scenes.

When I returned to Northern Ireland, I still had a draft of the novel lying in my boxes. I was able to complete a first version in 2012 after a trip to Prague. The timeline was tightened to give it more coherence, as in the 1999 version, I told the story up to 1982, which diluted the subject a bit. Once I had learned some basics of Czech and visited the towns of Kutná Hora and Český Krumlov as well as Prague, I was able to visualize the places in my novel and published it in 2014.

I finally translated it into French and published it in 2020 as an e-book on Kobo. In 2023, it was reissued with a new cover. I also revised the original in English and it will be available in German very soon

Further info please contact: dominique@zebras54.fr