Product Description: Contemporary Czech novelist and playwright Ivan Klíma has transformed his lifelong admiration for the work of the great Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek into an extended personal essay on Capek's life and work. Written with letters and other material not available to earlier biographers and critics, Klíma reflects on the effects of the author’s personal relationships and scrutinizes his artistic and philosophical influences...read more

Product Description: Written during and right after World War I, this volume pairs two short story collections from Karel Capek, considered one of the greatest Czech writers. The first collection, “Wayside Crosses,” presents an agonized and unsuccessful search for God and truth...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

An anthology of stories presenting famous events from the point of view of the man in the street. In one story, a baker describes Jesus' miracle of loaves and fish, in another, townspeople argue who is to blame for the invasion of the Huns. Thirty stories in all.Tales told from the perspectives of figures in Greek and Roman history, the Bible, and the plays of Shakespeare include a story of Hamlet considering whether or not to become an actor, and townspeople arguing over who should be blamed for the approachinghordes of Attila the Hun (view table of contents)