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Little Town by the Water Series

This series delves into the lives of residents in a small, picturesque town where everyday joys, worries, and unexpected events intertwine. It follows the destinies of energetic characters whose passions and decisions ripple through the community. The narratives are rich with humor, humanity, and capture the atmosphere of rural life with its unique traditions and interpersonal dynamics. Each installment offers new plotlines and insights into an ordinary yet fascinating existence.

Cutting it short
Harlequin's Millions
Schöntrauer

Recommended Reading Order

  1. 1

    Cutting it short

    • 144 pages
    • 6 hours of reading
    4.0(4092)Add rating

    'As I crammed the cream horn voraciously into my mouth, at once I heard Francin's voice saying that no decent woman would eat a cream puff like that' In a quiet town where not much happens, Maryska, the flamboyant brewer's wife, stands out. She cuts her skirt short so that she can ride her bicycle, her golden hair flying out behind her. She butchers pigs. She drinks and eats with relish. And when the garrulous ranconteur Uncle Pepin comes to visit the locals are scandalized even further, in Bohumil Hrabal's affecting, exuberant portrayal of a small central European community between the wars. 'One of the greatest European prose writers' Philip Roth 'Hrabal combines good humour and hilarity with tenderness' Observer

    Cutting it short
  2. 2

    Schöntrauer

    Aus dem Tschechischen von Franz Peter Künzel

    4.4(181)Add rating

    In Schöntrauer, dem 2. Teil seiner Trilogie Das Städtchen am Wasser (Die Schur, st 1613; Schöntrauer, st 1614; Harlekins Millionen, st 1615), erzählt Bohumil Hrabal nun aus der Perspektive des neugierigen Heranwachsenden die kleinen und burlesken Begebenheiten aus dem Heimatstädtchen Nymburk. Er entdeckt die an Absonderlichkeiten reiche Welt der Erwachsenen, ihre Schrullen und Launen, die die drohende Gefahr des Zweiten Weltkriegs unwirklich erscheinen läßt. Dem Alltäglichen und Banalen entlockt Hrabal die Poesie und verwandelt durch seine Imagination die Erinnerungen in ein humoreskes Spiel mit Phantasie und Erlebtem.

    Schöntrauer
  3. 3

    Harlequin's Millions

    • 312 pages
    • 11 hours of reading
    3.9(201)Add rating

    "By the writer whom Milan Kundera called Czechoslovakia's greatest contemporary writer comes a novel (now in English for the first time) peopled with eccentric, unforgettable inhabitants of a home for the elderly who reminisce about their lives and their changing country. Written with a keen eye for the absurd and sprinkled with dialogue that captures the poignancy of the everyday, this novel allows us into the mind of an elderly woman coming to terms with the passing of time. --

    Harlequin's Millions