Rodinné anabáze a šafrán aneb Rukověť o Švédsku – Pallas Jiří (2022)

The content of the book you are holding can be briefly expressed as: engagingly written adventurous Swedish memories from a Czech perspective. Its author, Jiří Pallas (born 1949), is known among other things for speaking his mind. He does not hold back praise where it is due, and of course, he does not shy away from criticism when he dislikes something. He spares no one - not even himself. He writes with the necessary distance and perspective, with a smoothly flowing humor, spiced with self-irony. This book can be judged in various ways, but not as politically correct in every respect.

Jiří Pallas is primarily associated with the founding and successful organizational and managerial leadership of the singer-songwriter association Šafrán - but that is just one chapter of this book and his life. He signed Charter 77 and was subsequently exiled with his family during the StB operation Asanace: since the autumn of 1977, he has lived in Sweden, first in Uppsala, then in Stockholm. In his book, he describes the establishment and functioning of the music publishing house Šafrán 78, the beginnings of exile, his astonishment at Nordic realities for better and worse, and the everyday life of a Czechoslovak family in Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s. Why didn’t Jiří Pallas return to his homeland after the November revolution? After all, he did return. He did his work for...