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Vladimír Medek

    May 11, 1940 – September 2, 2022

    Vladimír Medek is a Czech economist and translator who gained widespread recognition for his translation of the beloved seven-volume fantasy saga about Harry Potter. His work is characterized by precision and a deep understanding of the original texts. Medek is dedicated to conveying complex ideas and emotions into the Czech language with a keen sense for the original's style and nuances. His translation efforts have enriched the literary landscape, bringing impactful works to a broad readership.

    Vladimír Medek
    Alexandrijský kvartet
    One hundred years of solitude
    Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
    Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    Harry Potter 1-4
    • Includes the first 4 books. Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

      Harry Potter 1-4
      4.8
    • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

      • 796 pages
      • 28 hours of reading

      The summer holidays are dragging on and Harry Potter can't wait for the start of the school year. It is his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and there are spells to be learnt and (unluckily) Potions and Divination lessons to be attended. But Harry can't know that the atmosphere is darkening around him, and his worst enemy is preparing a fate that it seems will be inescapable . . . With characteristic wit, fast-paced humour and marvellous emotional depth, J.K. Rowling has proved herself yet again to be a master story-teller.

      Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
      4.6
    • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

      • 317 pages
      • 12 hours of reading

      When Harry and his best friends go back for their third year at Hogwarts, the atmosphere is tense. There's an escaped mass-murderer on the loose and the sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school. Lessons, however, must go on and there are lots of new subjects in third year - Care of Magical Creatures and Divination among others - to take Harry's mind off things!

      Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
      4.6
    • Celebrate 20 years of Harry Potter magic! Harry Potter's summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house-elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursleys by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors - and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone ... Dobby's sinister predictions seem to be coming true.These new editions of the classic and internationally bestselling, multi-award-winning series feature instantly pick-up-able new jackets by Jonny Duddle, with huge child appeal, to bring Harry Potter to the next generation of readers. It's time to PASS THE MAGIC ON ...

      Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
      4.5
    • This magical realist novel tells the history of the Buendias family, the founders of Macondo, a remote South American settlement. In the world of the novel there is a Spanish galleon beached in the jungle, a flying carpet, and an iguana in a woman's womb.

      One hundred years of solitude
      4.5
    • Velkolepá freska života v předválečné Alexandrii. Ústředním tématem je konvencemi nespoutaná láska. Tetralogii začal Durrell psát za svého pobytu v Alexandrii za 2. světové války. Alexandrijský kvartet je sebereflexivním dílem, které v sobě obsahuje ucelenou estetiku románu. Ten nepostupuje lineárně chronologicky, ale cyklicky. Obraz Alexandrie a jejích obyvatel autor láme a tříští do různých odrazových ploch „heraldického světa“. Termínem heraldický svět myslí Durrell obrazové vidění. – Justina: 1. román, jeho název je podle románu markýze de Sade Justine. Justina nemá daleko k bohyni. – Balthazar: 2. román, prorok. – Mountolive: 3. román nazvaný podle hlavní postavy. – Clea: 4. román posouvá příběh v čase. Celková kompozice tetralogie je navíc komplikována tím, že zatímco první, druhý a čtvrtý díl vypráví spisovatel Darley, který je účastníkem děje, třetí díl je vyprávěn ve třetí osobě a nejvíc se blíží objektivnímu vyprávění.

      Alexandrijský kvartet
      4.4
    • Nevermoor

      The Trials of Morrigan Crow

      • 374 pages
      • 14 hours of reading

      Enter the Wundrous world of Morrigan Crow and Nevermoor - the most fantastical children's release of the year.Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she's blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks - and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday. But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor. It's then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city's most prestigious organisation: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart - an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests - or she'll have to leave the city and confront her deadly fate once and for all. Perfect for fans of the Harry Potter series and His Dark Materials, this series takes readers into an extraordinary world, setting hope and imagination alive.

      Nevermoor
      4.4
    • Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

      Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
      4.3
    • Hopscotch

      • 564 pages
      • 20 hours of reading

      "Cortazar's masterpiece ... The first great novel of Spanish America" (The Times Literary Supplement) • Winner of the National Book Award for Translation in 1967, translated by Gregory Rabassa Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinian writer who lives in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, surrounded by a loose-knit circle of bohemian friends who call themselves "the Club." A child's death and La Maga's disappearance put an end to his life of empty pleasures and intellectual acrobatics, and prompt Oliveira to return to Buenos Aires, where he works by turns as a salesman, a keeper of a circus cat which can truly count, and an attendant in an insane asylum. Hopscotch is the dazzling, freewheeling account of Oliveira's astonishing adventures.

      Hopscotch
      4.3
    • Kniha patří do stejné kategorie jako lžíce, kladivo, kolo nebo nůžky. Neumíme si představit život bez tohoto fascinujícího artefaktu, který lidé vynalezli, aby slova mohla volně působit v prostoru a čase, a bez kterého by neexistovala civilizace. Viktoru Franklovi zabavili při příchodu do Osvětimi rukopis, který obsahoval jeho výzkumy za dlouhou dobu, a touha napsat to vše znovu ho udržela při životě. Frankl později uvedl, že i když byli mnozí intelektuálové v horší kondici než ostatní vězňové, život v Osvětimi snášeli paradoxně lépe. Dokázali se totiž izolovat od děsivého okolí a uchýlit se do vlastního nitra. Zachránila je jejich představivost a víra v sílu slov. Knihy pomáhají lidem přežít velké historické katastrofy i osobní tragédie. Knihy jsou naším svědomím, spásou zoufalých, inspirací milenců, zdrojem osvobozujícího smíchu. Když porovnáme něco starého s něčím novým – například knihu s tabletem, zdá se, že to nové má větší budoucnost. Ve skutečnosti je to naopak. Čím déle je určitý předmět či nějaká zvyklost mezi námi, tím větší má budoucnost. To nejnovější většinou zanikne nejdřív. I za mnoho let tady budou židle a stoly, lžíce i nůžky, možná však už nebudou tablety a mobilní telefony. Kdoví, jednou třeba nebudou solária, budeme však dál oslavovat zimní slunovrat.

      Nekonečný zázrak : jak člověk stvořil knihy a jak knihy utvářejí člověka
      4.1
    • The Overstory

      • 512 pages
      • 18 hours of reading

      The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of--and paean to--the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers's twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours--vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

      The Overstory
      4.1
    • Jestlipak znáte skřítka Hodináříčka? Tak to je mužíček v šedivém kabátku, v zelených kalhotkách, se zelenou čepičkou a je rádcem klukovi Filipovi. Pomůže mu získat výuční list hodinářského mistra a vydá se s ním na zkušenou do světa, dokonce až do Ameriky. Na zpáteční cestě Filip s Hodináříčkem prožijí mnohá dobrodružství, ocitnou se i v Africe mezi lidožrouty, ale šťastně se vrátí domů. Tím však všechny příhody obou přátel nekončí. Co následuje a co se stane s Hodináříčkem, si už musíme ovšem přečíst sami v nové knížce Vladimíra Medka.

      O hodináři Filipovi a skřítku Hodináříčkovi
      3.7
    • Autorský výběr nejlepších sci-fi povídek hrajících si s vážnou i nevážnou tématikou která naplňuje vesmír, lidstvo a jednotlivce. Vladimír Medek společně s bratrem Pavlem překládal i příběhy Harryho Pottera od J. K. Rowlingové.

      Bronzová planeta a jiná řešení
      3.8
    • Mario Vargas Llosa's classic early novel takes place in a Peruvian town, situated between desert and jungle, which is torn by boredom and lust. Don Anselmo, a stranger in a black coat, builds a brothel on the outskirts of the town while he charms its innocent people, setting in motion a chain reaction with extraordinary consequences. This brothel, called the Green House, brings together the innocent and the corrupt: Bonificia, a young Indian girl saved by the nuns only to become a prostitute; Father Garcia, struggling for the church; and four best friends drawn to both excitement and escape. The conflicting forces that haunt the Green House evoke a world balanced between savagery and civilization -- and one that is cursed by not being able to discern between the two.

      The Green House
      4.1
    • Strange Pilgrims

      • 208 pages
      • 8 hours of reading

      This collection features twelve extraordinary stories by a Nobel Prize-winning author, renowned for his classic works. Set in contemporary Europe, the narratives explore the unique and remarkable experiences of Latin Americans abroad. An ailing Caribbean ex-President finds an unlikely friendship with an ambitious ambulance driver and his strong-willed wife in Geneva. Margarito Duarte travels from the Colombian Andes to Rome with a cello-shaped box to present to the Pope. In Vienna, a woman known as Frau Frieda supports herself by sharing her dreams with wealthy families. A Mexican performer, stranded in Barcelona due to a car breakdown, ends up in an asylum. A vacationing family in Tuscany encounters a ghost at a Renaissance castle owned by a famous Venezuelan writer. Maria dos Prazeres, a former lady of the night in Barcelona, dreams of death and begins planning her funeral. A widow in a Saint Francis habit sails from Argentina to meet the Pope, while a beautiful Caribbean boy descends into madness in Spain. A German governess wreaks havoc on her charges’ summer, leading to her own downfall. Billy Sanchez takes his pregnant wife to a Paris hospital, never to see her again. In this mesmerizing collection, the author invites readers into enchanting worlds, leaving them spellbound.

      Strange Pilgrims
      4.1
    • Living to tell the tale

      • 496 pages
      • 18 hours of reading

      This work, the first volume of a planned trilogy, is the memoir of Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It contains details of people, places, events, family, work, politics, books and music, his beloved Colombia and parts of history and incidents that later appeared in his fiction.

      Living to tell the tale
      4.0
    • Captain Pantoja and the Special Service

      • 244 pages
      • 9 hours of reading

      In this delightful farce, the prim and proper Captain Pantoja is sent to Peru's Amazon frontier on a secret Army mission - he must find females for the amorous recruits.

      Captain Pantoja and the Special Service
      4.0
    • Krev na Maltézském náměstí

      • 134 pages
      • 5 hours of reading

      Pokleslé povídky malostranské. Většina příběhů rozehrává motiv setkání obyčejného člověka s nadpřirozenem. Objevují se zde vlkodlaci (povídka Iza), lidé žijící zároveň víc životů (San Marco, Dívka z Maltézského náměstí), upíři (Druhý osud Huga ď), přízrak mrtvé ženy (Neznámá z Kampy), sekta nesmrtelných bdící nad osudem lidstva (Humoristův dům), v humorné formě dokonce i SF motiv – teleportace (Mějte se na pozoru). Povídky se nevyznačují originalitou, ale zato vykazují autorovu schopnost vystavět příběh a vyspělý styl psaní. In: Adamovič – Slovník české literární fantastiky a science fiction

      Krev na Maltézském náměstí
      2.5
    • Queen of the South

      • 528 pages
      • 19 hours of reading

      "In order to survive, she will have to say good-bye to the old Teresa, an innocent girl who once entrusted her life to a pinche narco smuggler. She will have to find inside herself a woman who is tough enough to inhabit a world as ugly and dangerous as that of the narcos. And indeed, the strength of the woman who emerges will surprise even those who know her legend, that of the Queen of the South."--Jacket.

      Queen of the South
      3.9
    • Of Love and Other Demons

      • 168 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      "En la tercera hornacina del altar mayor, del lado del Evangelio, allí estaba la noticia. La lápida saltó en pedazos al primer golpe de la piocha, y una cabellera viva de un color de cobre intenso se derramó fuera de la cripta. El maestro de obra quiso sacarla completa con la ayuda de sus obreros, y cuanto más tiraban de ella más larga y abundante parecía, hasta que salieron las últimas hebras todavía prendidas a un cráneo de niña. En la hornacina no quedó nada más que unos huesecillos menudos y dispersos, y en la lápida de cantería carcomida por el salitre sólo era legible un nombre sin apellidos: Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles. Extendida en el suelo, la cabellera espléndida medía veintidós metros con once centímetros".

      Of Love and Other Demons
      3.9
    • La leyenda del ladrón

      • 664 pages
      • 24 hours of reading

      Prepárate a transportarte a la Sevilla del XVI,
 a un fascinante mundo de mendigos y prostitutas, nobles y comerciantes, espadachines y ladrones. El amor, la pasión y la venganza son los pilares de esta magistral novela de aventuras en torno a un niño salvado misteriosamente de la muerte, que crecerá para erigirse en la última esperanza
 de los desfavorecidos. El destino de Sancho y el de quienes le rodean hunde sus raíces en los secretos orígenes de la literatura. Su historia te cambiará para siempre. http://www.youtube.com/embed/mNghvmSvInM"

      La leyenda del ladrón
      3.7
    • Um die angeborene menschliche Aggressivität, die normalerweise in Kriegen kulminiert, abzubauen, erlaubten die Regierungen das Jagen von Menschen, mit Preisen für diejenigen, die zehn Opfer erreichen. Caroline Meredith, ausgestattet mit ihrem metallischen Schieß-BH, hat bereits neun Menschen getötet und hat somit die Chance, die erste Frau zu werden, die die begehrte Zehn erreicht. Ihre nächste Opfer ahnt nicht, wer der Jäger ist. Sie weiß nur, dass jedes Treffen, jeder Passant und jede Ecke eine Gefahr plötzlichen Todes bergen kann…

      Das zehnte Opfer. Science Fiction
      3.0
    • 'César Montero was dreaming about elephants. He'd seen them at the movies on Sunday . . . ' Only moments later, César is led away by police as they clear the crowds away from the man he has just killed. But César is not the only man to be riled by the rumours being spread in his Colombian hometown - under the cover of darkness, someone creeps through the streets sticking malicious posters to walls and doors. Each night the respectable townsfolk retire to their beds fearful that they will be the subject of the following morning's lampoons. As paranoia seeps through the town and the delicate veil of tranquility begins to slip, can the perpetrator be uncovered before accusation and violence leave the inhabitants' sanity in tatters?

      In Evil Hour
      3.6
    • The brotherhood of the Holy Shroud

      • 512 pages
      • 18 hours of reading

      One of History's Most Sacred Treasures . . . An Age-Old Secret Conspiracy . . . The Truth Must Be Revealed . . . The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud is the explosive international bestseller that mixes fact and fiction to tell the riveting story of one of the world's most controversial relics, the Turin Shroud - believed by millions of the faithful to bear the likeness of Christ - and the desperate race to save it from those who will stop at nothing to possess its legendary power. A fire at the Cathedral of Turin and the discovery of a strangely mutilated body attract the attention of Italy's special Art Crimes Department. For the fire is only the latest in a troubling series of arson attacks and break-ins at the cathedral which houses the famous shroud. Department chief Marco Valoni leads a team of top investigators in a race to solve a crime certain to shock the world: someone is planning to steal the Holy Shroud. From the storm-rent skies over Calvary, through the glories of Byzantium and the intrigue and treachery of the Crusades, The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud is a thrilling page-turner of the highest order - one that will challenge you to believe.

      The brotherhood of the Holy Shroud
      3.6
    • Fantasy román vypráví o zapomenutém království Maronna, které vzešlo a trvalo na samém počátku Čtvrtého světa, v dobách, kdy po Zemi ještě chodili Mágové ze severu. Harad - tajný král z rodu Jézu - pozvedl zbraň proti Říši a jejímu temnému Vládci, aby obnovil Maronnu. Téměř dva tisíce let nadvlády nelidí, velkých ghúrů z Angyalu a jejich odporných zabijáckých krunů, mělo být u konce. Podle slov starého pergamenu však největší díl Síly Země v sobě skrývá meč Š´ív, proto Harad musí nejprve nalézt sedm klíčů, jež by otevřely Jeskyni pod Věží. On a jeho druhové putují po celém Známém světě, a přitom se musejí vyhýbat důmyslným nástrahám nepřátel. Král pozná i pravou moudrost a dostane se až do Zapovězeného kraje k mágům. Jednotlivé nitky příběhu se nakonec slévají do jednoho: v krvelačné Poslední bitvě se rozhodne, kdo bude vládnout Zemi. Harad ovšem netuší, jakou cenu za to zaplatí.

      Maronna. Příběh ze Čtvrtého světa.
      3.3
    • Coy is a sailor without a ship.Tánger Soto is a woman with an obsession to find the Dei Gloria, a ship sunk during the seventeenth century, and El Piloto is an old man with the sailboat on which all three set out to seek their fortune together. Or do they?

      The Nautical Chart
      3.5
    • The Old Gringo

      • 720 pages
      • 26 hours of reading

      One of Carlos Fuentes’s greatest works, The Old Gringo tells the story of Ambrose Bierce, the American writer, soldier, and journalist, and of his last mysterious days in Mexico living among Pancho Villa’s soldiers, particularly his encounter with General Tomas Arroyo. In the end, the incompatibility of the two countries (or, paradoxically, their intimacy) claims both men, in a novel that is, most of all, about the tragic history of two cultures in conflict.

      The Old Gringo
      3.3
    • Winner of the 1986 Booker Prize. Malcolm, Peter and Charlie and their Soave-sodden wives have one main ambition left in life: to drink Wales dry. But their routine is both shaken and stirred when they are joined by professional Welshman Alun Weaver (CBE) and his wife, Rhiannon.

      The Old Devils
      3.4
    • Leaf Storm

      • 128 pages
      • 5 hours of reading

      This is a collection of stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, most of which are fables. It includes Leaf Storm, a tale about a week-long South American rainstorm, and the story of a tarry angel who crash-lands in a village and is kept in a hencoop.

      Leaf Storm
      3.5
    • Uncommon Type

      • 416 pages
      • 15 hours of reading

      A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game--and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN's newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture into America looking for acquisitions and discover a down and out motel, romance, and a bit of real life. These are just some of the tales Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories. They are surprising, intelligent, heartwarming, and, for the millions and millions of Tom Hanks fans, an absolute must-have!

      Uncommon Type
      3.4