Join us for the launch of Life After Kafka, a compelling novel about Felice Bauer, Franz Kafka’s first fiancée.
Acclaimed Czech novelist and Magnesia Litera Award finalist Magdalena Platzová, alongside journalist and Kafka enthusiast Nick Lezard, will explore this captivating blend of fact and fiction, transporting readers across time and space—from pre–World War II Europe to present-day America. Inspired by Platzová’s meeting with Felice Bauer’s son, the novel provides fresh insights into Kafka’s world while weaving a haunting family saga about legacy, survival, and the profound impact of famous artists on those closest to them.“Meticulously researched, vividly envisioned. . . . The writing deftly renders both the texture of life before and after two world wars and the persistent longing of refugees for a home that no longer exists.” —Washington Independent Review of Books
“Kafka afficionados will thrill to this. . . . Equal parts family memoir and a tantalizing publishing detective story, Life After Kafka raises questions about memory, privacy, and the impact on each by the passage of time.” —Historical Novels Review
“This elegantly narrated novel, full of fascinations, paints an impassioned and poignant portrait of Felice Bauer and other exiles connected to Franz Kafka and charts a compelling cartography of their now vanished world.” —Benjamin Balint, author of Kafka’s Last Trial and Bruno Schulz
“Franz Kafka is a universe that resists any attempt at interpretation. Magdaléna Platzová’s novel offers a new key to Kafka’s world: we look at it through the tender and sorrowful gaze of the people whose fate had been marked by him personally. An utterly touching book!” —Agnieszka Holland, award-winning filmmaker and president of the European Film Academy
About Magdaléna Platzová
Magdaléna Platzová is the author of nine books, including three novels published in English: Aaron’s Leap, a Lidové Noviny Book of the Year Award finalist, The Attempt, longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and a Czech Book Award finalist, and Life After Kafka, a Magnesia Litera award finalist. Her fiction has also appeared in A Public Space and Words Without Borders. Platzová grew up in the Czech Republic; studied in Washington, DC, and England; received her MA in Philosophy at Charles University in Prague; and has taught at New York University’s Gallatin School. She is now based in Lyon, France.
About the Translator
Alex Zucker is the award-winning translator of several books by Czech authors. Among other honors, he has received the American Literary Translators Association’s National Translation Award, two English PEN Translates awards, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. His recent translation of Bianca Bellová’s The Lake was the winner of the EBRD Literature Prize, and his translation of Magdaléna Platzová’s The Attempt was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Zucker is a former cochair of the PEN America Translation Committee and has collaborated with the Authors Guild on many projects, including its first model contract for literary translation. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
About Nicholas Lezard
Nicholas Lezard is a columnist for the New Statesman and has been a literary critic since 1985. He has written for the Guardian, the Independent, the Spectator, among many other publications, and was a judge for the Goldsmiths prize for Fiction in 2018. He lives in Brighton.
More Information: https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/magdalena-platzova-life-after-kafka
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AddressEmbassy of the Czech Republic, 26-30 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, Greater London,
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