Book fair guests

Guests of the Book World Prague 2022

Viola Ardone

Participates in Programmes: 10. 6. 13:00 ATELIER EUROPA| 11. 6. 14:00 AUTHOR'S HALL | 11. 6. 15:00 HB201 | The Italian writer Viola Ardone was born in Naples and studied literature. She worked in publishing industry and then as a teacher of Italian and Latin. Her debut novel La ricetta del cuore in subbuglio (Heart recipe) was published in 2013 and followed in 2016 byt Una rivoluzione sentimentale (A sentimental revolution). Her novel Il treno dei bambini (The Children's Train) caused a great sensation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019 and became quickly a world best-seller. Czechs can read The Children’s Train (Vlak pro děti) published by Ikar in Alice Macková’s translation and Oliva Denaro (Nejsem jako džbán) to be published just before Svět knihy Praha 2022. Viola Ardone lives in Naples.

Guests of the Book World Prague 2022

Svetlana Alexievich

Participates in Programmes: 10. 6. 20:00 LARGE THEATRE | 11. 6. 15:00 LARGE THEATRE | 11. 6. 16:00 HA304 | The journalist and the writer Svetlana Alexievich (Святлана Аляксандраўна Алексіевіч) is a master of literary journalism. Born in Ukraine to a Belarusian father and a Ukrainian mother, she grew up in Belarus. After graduating from the university she worked as a reporter, covering many of USSR’s turmoils from the Afghanistan war to Chernobyl. Her way of collecting oral stories and turning them into literature amounts to a vivid testimony and an insider’s literary portrayal of society. Writing on various subjects of the Soviet and post-Soviet time, she had to face various trials and exiles for telling people the truth. She was awarded many prizes, most notably the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”. All her books have been published in Czech, mostly by Pistorius & Olšanská publishers, among them Secondhand Time or Voices from Chernobyl which inspired a film and an HBO series. Currently lives in Berlin.

Guests of the Book World Prague 2022

Lukas Bärfuss

Perhaps the most prominent of contemporary Swiss writers, also an acclaimed playwright, theatre director and dramaturgist. His novels have been translated into twenty languages, his plays are being staged all around the world, his works are thought-provoking and provocative: Bärfuss’s topics are rooted in the present and often disturbing, such as the role development aid had played in the genocide in Rwanda, the suicide of his brother, stalking, or the sexual life of a young handicapped woman. Bärfuss left school aged only nine, and his jobs included growing tobacco, construction-site work and gardening. When he later started working in a bookstore, he discovered his true vocation: writing. His works have received numerous prizes, including the Berlin Literary Award (2013), the Swiss Award for Literature (2014) and the Georg Büchner Prize (2019), the most prestigious award for literature written in the German language.

Guests of the Book World Prague 2022

Etgar Keret

Participates in Programmes: 10. 6. 16:00 LARGE HALL | 10. 6. 17:00 HA107 | 11. 6. 17:00 LARGE HALL | Etgar Keret is an all-accomplished Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. Keret was born in the suburbs of Tel-Aviv from Polish survivors of the Holocaust. He gained wide attention with his second short-story collection Missing Kissinger, which counts among the most important works in Hebrew. He is one of the most popular writers in Israel and his works have been translated into 42 languages in 45 countries. His writing has been described as post-modern, absurd and humorous. Besides his short stories, Etgar Keret also authors graphic novels, books for children, and collaborates on screenwriting for film and television (Israel and French). His latest short story collections Fly Already has been awarded the prestigious Saphir Prize, the main prize for literature in Hebrew. Czechs can read many of his books – his latest book Tak už leť (Fly Already) was published by Garamond in Magdalena Jehličková and Tereza Černá’s translation. Etgar Keret lives in Tel-Aviv.

Guests of the Book World Prague 2022

Claudia Durastanti

Participates in Programmes: 10. 6. 17:00 LARGE THEATRE | 12. 6. 12:00 LARGE THEATRE | 12. 6. 13:00 HB201 | The translator and writer Claudia Durastanti was born in New York City, from an Italian mother and an Italo-American father. After the divorce of her parents at the age of six she moved to Italy. She studied Cultural Anthropology, worked in publishing industry and later as a translator. Her debut novel "Un giorno verrò a lanciare sassi alla tua finestra" (One day I will come and throw stones at your window) was published in 2010 and was awarded the Mondello Prize for the Best debut. She translated works of such writers as Joshua Cohen, Donna Haraway, Ocean Vuong or Fitzgerald. In 2019, she published the autobiographical story "The Stranger" (La straniera), which evokes childhood memories, from deafness and the separation of her parents to her childhood between two continents. She is finalist for the Strega prize and receives the Pozzale Luigi Russo prize for this fourth novel. "The Stranger" (La straniera) will be published in Czech by Kniha Zlín in Sára Flemrova’s translation right before Book World Prague 2022. Claudia Durastanti lives between Rome and New York City.

Guests of the Book World Prague 2022

Leila Slimani

Already her first novel Dans le Jardin de l’ogre (Adèle) was noted for its style and subject matter (female sexual addiction) and in 2016, Leïla Slimani received the Goncourt Prize for Chanson douce (Lullaby). She was born in 1981 in Rabat and grew up in a well-to-do French-speaking family. She does not hesitate to tackle controversial issues (feminism, women’s sexuality, colonialism), while claiming her “true” dual Moroccan and French nationality, “a true double belonging”. She is Emmanuel Macron’s representative on the Permanent Council of the International Organisation of the Francophonie. La guerre, la guerre, la guerre, the first part of a trilogy entitled Le Pays des autres (The Country of Others), as well as the graphic novel À mains nues, have recently been translated into Czech.

Guests of the Book World Prague 2022

Nathan Law

Participates in Programmes: 10. 6. 19:00 LARGE THEATRE | 11. 6. 16:00 LITERATURE, OR THE VOICE OF FREEDOM | Nathan Law is a human rights activist, politician and writer – a fighter for democracy in the East. Born in Shenzen to a Hong Kong father and a Mainland mother, he grew up in Hong Kong. In September 2014, HKFS and Scholarism launched a week-long class boycott against Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong’s electoral system (“reforms” aimed at bringing down Hong Kong’s democracy). This marked the beginning of the Umbrella Revolution, which attempted to defend democracy against the Communist party’s authoritarian rule. Soon after it had been crushed by the government Law was arrested and imprisoned for some time. In April 2016, Law and other leaders of the Umbrella Revolution including Joshua Wong formed a new political party called Demosistō. He was elected to the Legislative Council, making him, at 23 years of age, the youngest-ever person to become a Hong Kong legislator. In 2017, after being dismissed from his position, he was sentenced to jail for 8 months. In 2018, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers nominated Law and other leaders for the Nobel Prize for Peace. He also won the reader’s poll of the Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020. In 2021, he published Freedom: How we lose it and how we fight back. Nathan Law currently lives in self-exile in London.