Vita Nuova: A Novel (Writings from an Unbound Europe)

Vita Nuova is the second in a trilogy of memoirs written from the perspective

of Bohumil Hrabal’s wife, Elis.ka, about their life in Prague

from the 1950s to the 1970s, when Communist repression of artists was

at its peak.

 

Hrabal’s inimitable humor, which in Elis.ka’s ruminations ranges

from bawdy slapstick to cutting irony, is all the more penetrating for

being directed at himself. Vita Nuova showcases Hrabal’s legendary

bohemian intellectual life, particularly his relationship with Vladimír

Boudník. Hrabal creates a shrewd, lively portrait of Eastern European

intellectual life in the mid-twentieth century.