'Short, sharp and eccentric . sophisticated, thought-provoking and pithy' SPECTATOR 'Unmissable, combines extremes of comedy and seriousness, plus pathos, slapstick, sex and violence all stirred into one delicious brew' GUARDIAN 'In imaginative riches and sheer exhilaration it offers more than most books twice its size . at once tender and scatological, playful and sombre, moving and irresistibly funny' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY Devastating... a superb book and a magnificent author' INDEPENDENT

Bohumil Hrabal was born in 1914 in Brno-Zidenice, Czecholovakia. He died in 1995.