GASTLAND TSCHECHIEN MIT Dora Kaprálová, Jáchym Topol und Marek Torčík

“Czech Republic: A Country on the Coast” – New Shores, Broad Horizons: The Guest of Honor at the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair presents a sea of literary and cultural diversity.
In keeping with a long-standing tradition, the Literaturhaus Bonn will introduce renowned authors and works from the guest country on the eve of the fair:

Dora Kaprálová was born in Brno in 1975 and is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Czech literature. She writes and publishes critically acclaimed prose, essays, plays, radio plays, and screenplays, and has produced numerous radio documentaries. To date, five of her works of prose have been published in German, most recently *Winterbuch der Liebe* (translated by Nataša von Kopp) by the Berlin-based publisher Mikrotext. 

To coincide with the Frankfurt Book Fair, her latest novel, *Mariborská hypnóza*, will be published in German in September 2026 under the title *Die Mariborhypnose* by Mikrotext—translated from Czech by Nataša von Kopp. On April 18, 2026, it was named “Book of the Year 2026” at the Magnesia Litera, the most prestigious Czech literary competition, and also received the Magnesia Litera Prize for Best Prose. It is currently also on the shortlist for the “European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL).” 

Jáchym Topol, born in Prague in 1962 and the son of playwright Josef Topol, was not only a star of the literary and musical underground before 1989 but remains the best-known Czech author of his generation to this day. At the age of sixteen, he signed Charter 77; in 1985, he founded the underground magazine Revolver Revue; and he worked as a stoker and warehouse worker. In 1988, his first collection of poems, *I Love You to the Point of Madness*, was published in samizdat. He made his breakthrough as a writer with the novel *The Sister*. Topol lives in Prague.

Prague, February 24, 2022—the day of Russia’s major offensive against Ukraine. Tom, an aging journalist, sets off with his lover on a trip to the countryside. A Baroque monastery in South Bohemia promises a respite from inner and outer turmoil: His marriage is in shambles, his job hangs by a thread, and his gay son is a source of worry. Then the editorial office gets in touch—*Point*, a trendy publication funded by an opaque businessman with ties to Russia. They need an article immediately on the Czechs’ trust in NATO…

“Hell Doesn’t Exist” (translated from Czech by Eva Profousová) recounts, with a mix of humor and despair, what has become of the hopes and dreams of 1989. Not only does the old, very Czech story resurface—the individual is powerless against the tanks of an invading army—but so does the acute experience: entangled in the chaos of love and family life, one is hardly up to the task of facing this historic moment.

Marek Torčík(b. 1993) is a poet, writer, and journalist. He is from Přerov and lives in Prague, where he studied Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. In 2016, he published the poetry collection *Rhizomy*; since then, he has primarily published prose and poetry in literary journals. In 2018 and 2020, he was among the ten finalists in the Czech-Slovak competition Básne SK/CZ. His debut novel, *What Time Does Not Take* (*Rozložíš paměť*), was awarded the Magnesia Litera, the most prestigious Czech literary prize, in the prose category, as well as the Jiří Orten Prize.

A phone call in the middle of the night—and the past comes flooding back.
A late-night conversation with his mother takes Marek back to his youth—back to a family with dysfunctional patterns and an environment that punishes difference. As a queer boy in a conservative industrial town, bullying is Marek’s constant companion. And the political and economic upheavals of 1989 take their toll not only on him but on the entire family—in the form of poverty, alcoholism, and violence.
In a melancholic, fragile, but above all hopeful tone, Torčik describes a young man’s search for identity as he finds the courage to be true to himself.
“What Time Cannot Take Away” has been translated into 27 languages to date (into German by Mirko Kraetsch) and is the most internationally successful Czech novel in decades.

Moderator: Eva Profousová
Reading of the German texts: Tatjana Pasztor
In German and Czech

In cooperation with the Bundeskunsthalle
Supported by the Kunststiftung NRW