{"id":715,"date":"2024-07-12T16:26:33","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluh2.wordpress.com\/?page_id=715"},"modified":"2024-07-12T16:26:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:26:33","slug":"kudy-sel-andel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/kudy-sel-andel\/","title":{"rendered":"Kudy \u0161el and\u011bl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Where Was the Angel Going?)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cBalab\u00e1n himself proves that he was the best Czech (albeit so very \u2018un-Czech\u2019) contemporary writer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Ex Libris Marta<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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About the Book<\/summary>\n
Original Title<\/strong><\/td> Kudy \u0161el and\u011bl<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/strong><\/td>2003<\/td><\/tr>
Publisher<\/strong><\/td>Vetus Via, Brno<\/td><\/tr>
Rerelease<\/strong><\/td>2005<\/td><\/tr>
Publisher<\/strong><\/td>Host, Brno
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Pages<\/strong><\/td> 184<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Rights Sold<\/summary>\n
Poland<\/strong><\/td>Afera – Wroclaw<\/td><\/tr>
North Macedonia<\/strong><\/td>Goten – Skopje<\/td><\/tr>
Hungary <\/strong><\/td>Noran Libro – Budapest<\/td><\/tr>
United Kingdom<\/strong><\/td>Glagoslav – London<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The story begins in the 1970s in an Ostrava housing estate, where Martin Vr\u00e1na grows up alongside various labor migrants and uprooted families. We fragmentarily follow his life journey from a hairy high school student experiencing his first love, through a promising career as a translator to personal failures, marital crisis and life disillusionment. Martin Vr\u00e1na takes stock of his life before and after the regime change and recognises how disillusionment, disappointment and fatigue slowly creep into youthful exuberance. But despite all that, here we are and actually not much has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomewhere in the cosmos there are happier places,\u201d muses Martin Vr\u00e1na, the hero of Jan Balab\u00e1n\u2019s novel Where Was the Angel Going?.<\/em> Martin, like the survivor of a shipwreck, strives to shore up his vital resources amidst the billows of a hostile inimical world, which constantly advance and threaten to wash away everything he holds dear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Was the Angel Going? <\/em>is a novel made up of forty-six linked stories. As always, Balab\u00e1n\u2019s prose is so vivid that the reader can practically taste the \u201choney and dust,\u201d which are the characteristic flavours of Ostrava. And yet, in its lyrical message of love and friendship as basic human needs no less critical than air and water, Where was the Angel Going?<\/em> is nonetheless an eminent universal novel. Everyone will find him or herself in these pages, as we are all of us descended from that first pair of exiles, Adam and Eve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhile certainly grim, Balab\u00e1n tells his story really well in his forty-six episodes. He clearly has a message \u2013 it was really grim back under the Communists and while it is better now, it is not hugely better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 The Modern Novel<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBalab\u00e1n continues to be a passionate storyteller. Each chapter in itself forms a meticulously piece on its own.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 iLiteratura<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere is some beauty in this heartbreakingly sad novel. And pain that wounds to the depths of the heart, drawing hidden emotions out of a person. \u2018Where Was the Angel Going?\u2019 is a novel that you experience with every piece of your soul. And Balab\u00e1n himself proves that he was the best Czech (albeit so very \u2018un-Czech\u2019) contemporary writer. What a pity that he will not write anything more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Ex Libris Marta<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Translations<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Kt\u00f3r\u0119dy szed\u0142 anio\u0142<\/summary>\n

Afera, Wroclaw, 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Olga Czernikow<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

\u041f\u0430\u0442\u043e\u0442 \u043d\u0430 \u0430\u043d\u0433\u0435\u043b\u043e\u0442<\/summary>\n

Goten, Skopje, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Dime Mitreski<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Hov\u00e1 lett az angyal?<\/summary>\n

Noran Libro, Budapest, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by P\u00e9ter Kolosz\u00e1r<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Where Was the Angel Going?<\/summary>\n

Glagoslav, London, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Charles S. Kraszewski<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Where Was the Angel Going?) \u201cBalab\u00e1n himself proves that he was the best Czech (albeit so very \u2018un-Czech\u2019) contemporary writer.\u201d \u2014 Ex Libris Marta The story begins in the 1970s in an Ostrava housing estate, where Martin Vr\u00e1na grows up alongside various labor migrants and uprooted families. We fragmentarily follow his life journey from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":727,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-715","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}