{"product_id":"the-book-of-hrabal-9780810111998","title":"The Book of Hrabal","description":"Winner of the 2004 German Publishers and Booksellers Association Peace Prize \u003cbr\u003e Named a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book of 1994 \u003cbr\u003e Winner of 1995 The New York Times Review Notable Books \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e An elaborate, elegant homage to the great Czech storyteller Bohumil Hrabal (author of \u003ci\u003eClosely Watched Trains\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Hrabal\u003c\/i\u003e is also a farewell to the years of communism in Eastern Europe and a glowing paean to the mixed blessings of domestic life. Anna, blues-singing housewife and mother of three, addresses her reminiscences and reflections to Hrabal. They swing from domestic matters, to accounts of the injustices suffered by her family during the Stalinist 1950s and the police harassment in subsequent years, to her husband's crazy ideas. He frets over his current project, a book celebrating Hrabal, but seems unable to write it. Meanwhile, two angels, undercover as secret policemen, shadow the household-communicating via walkie-talkie-to prevent Anna from aborting her fourth child. God himself (aka Bruno) enters the scene; he chats with Hrabal, takes saxophone lessons from an irreverent Charlie Parker (unfortunately even this doesn't cure his tone-deaf ear), and tries to play the saxophone to dissuade her from ending the pregnancy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Northwestern University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/1995\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780810111998\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 168\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.06h x 4.80w x 0.57d","brand":"Peter Esterhazy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52732249964725,"sku":"9780810111998","price":18.66,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-book-of-hrabal-9780810111998","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}