Dějiny světla – Němec Jan (2014)

A novel about the photographer František Drtikol. Have you ever wondered what a story written by a beam of light would look like? First, it would not be an ordinary story, but an extraordinary fate; second, its hero would be a photographer, a guardian of light; and third, it would be a fate full of shadows, of course. Who was František Drtikol? A dandy from a mining town, a world-renowned photographer whose business was failing, a master of nudes who never had luck with women, a mystic and Buddhist who believed in communism; a man of many external contradictions and their internal synthesis. Jan Němec (1981) presents an extensive and unusually conceived novel fresco for contemporary Czech prose, an artistic and spiritual Bildungsroman that spans over half a century: the silver mines of Příbram come to life, Munich during the Secession, and the interwar bohemia, with naked models strolling through the lines while light subtly merges with consciousness... My name is Drtikol. I crushed the wheels that constrained me. I am a photographer. I photographed with light. I write into people's souls with the light of knowledge. František Drtikol. Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature 2014, Czech Book Award 2014, nominated for the Magnesia Litera 2014 for prose, nominated for the Josef Škvorecký Prize 2014.