The Scandinavian House and the Book World fair are organising a traditional literary evening with Nordic writers.
Four Nordic authors have accepted the invitation to take part in the event:
From 7 pm we will lead a discussion with Norwegian writer Stein Torleif Bjella and Finnish writer Kari Hotakainen. The authors will discuss their books, which have recently been published in Czech translation and are linked by the theme of the deeper meaning of human existence. In The Fisherman’s Hut (translated by Jarka Vrbová, Prostor publishing house), the prose debut of the successful singer-songwriter Bjella, we go fishing with two very different men who are trying to find their way to each other, and during a week at a lake in the heart of the Norwegian countryside, family traditions and life values also come up for discussion. Hotakainen’s novel The Story (translated by Vladimír Piskoř, dybbuk publishing house), his seventh translation into Czech and the first to be classified in the popular “Finnish weird” genre, is set in a near-future in which the society faces a lack of accommodation, and the apartments are allocated on the basis of a compelling life story.
Hosted by Barbora Grečnerová.
From 8pm we will welcome the Swedish writer Marit Kapla and Danish author Jesper Clemmensen. Both authors have a common interest in history, journalism, documentary work, television and history. Marit Kapla, in her extensive work Osebol (not yet published in Czech), which defies the pigeonholes of literary genres, and for which she won the August Prize, gives testimony of the eponymous Swedish village through poeticized interviews with villagers, thus bringing the history of the region to life. Jesper Clemmensen, on the other hand, is more interested in the big history, although he also looks at it through the stories of individuals. In his book Refugees (translated by Michaela Weber, Pangea publishing house), he tells the story of Jan Ročko and his family, who jumped off the deck of an East German cruise ship in 1960 and landed in the port of Gedser, Denmark, in order to escape from the then-Eastern Bloc to freedom.
Hosted by Marie Voslářová.
The discussions will be accompanied by a staged reading of excerpts by the actress Marie Jansová, and there will be an opportunity to buy the books and have them signed.
In Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish, interpreted into Czech.
Entrance to the event is included in the ticket to the BOOK WORLD Fair.
The event is held in cooperation with the Nordic Embassies in the Czech Republic, the BOOK WORLD Fair Prague, the literary foundations FILI, NORLA, the Danish Art Fund and the European Union Prize for Literature. The literary project of the Scandinavian House in 2023 is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Prague Municipality.
