Vaclav Havel: The Short Plays

by Carol Rocamora (Translator)

Vaclav Havel - dissident, activist, essayist, philosopher, politician, founder and president of the Czech Republic - is known the world over as a hero of the human rights movement and a martyr for the "right to write." But few in the West know that he is also his country's most famous playwright. Author of ten full-lengths and eight one-acts, his plays not only tell the story of his country, but also helped to change its history. Now for the first time, the eight short plays of Vaclav Havel are being published in one collection, including the acclaimed trilogy entitled "The Vanek Plays," as well as four one-acts never before been translated into English or seen anywhere in the West. Bright, absurdist, satiric and laceratingly funny, these sharply observed plays tell the story of life under totalitarianism, in a turbulent time when humor was the ultimate weapon of survival.

Genres: Politics

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2007