Transfigured Night

by Libuše Moníková, Helga Braunbeck (Afterword), Anne Posten (Translator)

A vision of late-twentieth-century Prague from an acclaimed Czech novelist.
 
In late 1992, three years after the Velvet Revolution and as Czechoslovakia is about to dissolve into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, choreographer and dancer Leonora Marty, who fled the Communist state decades earlier, has returned to Prague. Having wrapped up her ballet of The Makropulos Affair , the famous dancer meets old classmates, wanders the city through crowds of tourists, and visits the most obscure and unvisited museums. When she is approached by Thomas Asperger, a descendant of ethnic Germans driven from Czechoslovakia after World War II, she must confront three relationships—her relationship with the city of her youth, her homeland’s relationship with its past, and her new romance with this German admirer.

Written in German and published in 1995, by an author whose life mirrored her protagonist’s, the novel provides a cultural tour of Prague. Employing a style as influenced by the operas of Leoš Janácek as the novels of Thomas Pynchon, Transfigured Night is a masterpiece of Czech literature, showing that the culture of this nation comes in a variety of tongues.
 
 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Czech Literature

125 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Libuše Moníková was a Czech author, publishing in in the German language. In 1968, following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, she left for Western Germany. She died in Berlin.

Reviews

[Eleanor Wilderspin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels utterly special.
A privilege to read.
Read it having just returned from a Prague trip (where I bought it) and loved re-walking its streets with Leonora.

[Wendelle]

A Czech expat, leader of a prestigious dance troupe and star of some play adaptations and a PhD credentialed lecturer in German universities to boot, returns to survey and contemplate her beloved city of Prague that has changed with time in conjunction with the changes in her life. She thinks back to her childhood in the Soviet era when she, along with all members of society, had to participate in gymnastics drills. Then she leaves, for independence, leaving behind a potential lover. Prague itself first saw the Soviets in their charge as liberators, later as occupiers to drive out. The country changed out of communism, but in the narrator's viewpoint its values changed too. Restaurants became expensive tourist traps catering only to Westerners with subpar instant meals, pensioners suffer waiting for financial support or renumeration, while previous thugs and cheaters prosper. Germans were expelled from the country, Slovaks are agitating for their own country. This is a fine novella to witness in one quick view, the soul of a changing nation.

[Teodora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how it felt like visiting Prague all over again but with History elements in it. Also the love story was integrated so well into the Historical parts and the return of the protagonist.

[Lisen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this in a cute little bookstore in Prague so reading it was also just... experiencing Prague all over again which was really nice. It's not a favorite book, and it's really quite strange and it pulls in all directions and goes off on tangents but I still enjoyed reading it.

There's also a whole exploration of Leni Riefenstahl which made me feel very educated when my professor brought it up later in a whole other context

[Neo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and blending the line between reality, history and fiction, Transfigured Night takes us on a nightwalk through the streets of Prague.