Přátelé Arnošta Lustiga očima Františka Cingera (2026)

This Czech-language book presents eleven portraits of people close to the world-famous author Arnošt Lustig, whom his friend and collaborator František Cinger met or corresponded with, usually discussing their lives and literary work. Zdeněk Mahler is represented through his collaboration with Lustig at Czechoslovak Radio, while work on the book Moments: Arnošt Lustig Remembers Ota Pavel brought Cinger together many times with Jiří and Hugo Pavel. The stories of Josef Škvorecký, A. J. Liehm and Eduard Goldstücker reflect literature and politics from the 1950s to the Prague Spring. Milan Kundera’s work reveals an extraordinary figure in world literature. Adolf Branald’s portrait offers an experience reaching from the early years of Czech cinema after the First World War through the stories depicted in the films Grandfather Automobile and Vizita. The collection also includes Lustig’s contemporaries and friends Bohumil Hrabal and Josef Nesvadba, as well as the younger Petr Šabach, together with a portrait of Lustig’s wife, the poet and novelist Věra Weislitzová. The book is published to mark the centenary of Arnošt Lustig’s birth and forms part of the FestivAL100 project.