Max Brod

[Henry]

While I was sifting through a list of Czech authors to prepare for a trip to Prague, I realized that Max Brod, even though he is famous in the literary world for rescuing Kafka's work from oblivion, is largelay forgotten.

So I put his alleged masterpiece "Tycho Brahe's Path to God" on my reading list. It awaits me in the library next door (according to their system, all of his works are just sitting there on their shelf, another indication towards his buried status) and I hope I will have the time to read it in the coming weeks.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Cool!

Did he write in German? And what do you know about his works making it into English? I see that Tycho Brahe's Path to God: A Novel exists.

[Henry]

Yes, he wrote in German. Prague had a large German community up until the expulsion of the Germans in 1945. There is a good episode about this in the British Museum's last year podcast "Germany: Memories of a Nation" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04jlntn).

I did a qucik search and, besides Tyco Brahe, could only find Reuben, Prince of the Jews in English (or at least I assume, the edition's language is English: http://www.amazon.com/Reubeni-Prince-...).

[Henry]

Speaking of which: If anyone knows more about the so called Prager Deutsche Literatur (Prague German Literature), literature written in the German subform Prague German, any recommendations would be welcome.

[Robert]

Actually, Brod was Jewish, not German, but German was the first language for most (but not all) Prague Jews. Until 1918, Prague had been part of German-speaking Austria for centuries. The best-known Prague Jew who wrote in Czech was Karel Poláček, whose deeply buried novel, What Ownership's All About, I published in an English translation twenty years ago.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Robert wrote: "The best-known Prague Jew who wrote in Czech was Karel Poláček, whose deeply buried novel, What Ownership's All About, I published in an English translation twenty years ago."

oh dear! ADD please!

Even his wildly popular We Were a Handful doesn't seem to have attracted an English language audience.

[Robert]

I don't like to add books I published.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Robert wrote: "I don't like to add books I published."

Understood! And but so since I see you're offering What Ownership's All About as a FREEbie ebook, I'll go ahead and make some noise about it. If you don't mind. ; )

[I appreciate your practice here in regard to self-promotionalism ; not always an easy balance]

[Henry]

Thanks for pointing out my mistake, Robert. Although Jewish is a religious denomination and not a nationality. I guess that makes Max Brod Austrian.

And thanks for hinting at Karel Poláček. I hope you can answer my question in the thread opened by Nathan.

ANyways, I got Tyco Brahe from the library and it appears that Max Brod isn't that buried at all, as the Wallstein Verlag has republished his books in 2013: http://www.wallstein-verlag.de/autore...

[Henry]

So I read it recently and I liked it very much. It reminded me of Daniel Kehlmann's Measuring of the World in the beginning. In the middle it seemed like a Shakespeare play, because every character pursued their very own goals (I am not well versed enough in Shakespeare to make such generalistic statements, but I do anyways) and then it turned quite psychological. Unfortunately on some evenings I read it, I was rather tired, so a few aspects of the book might have passed me by, but I actually would read it again if I find the time some day.