Original title: Lehni, bestie!
Genre: novel
Publisher:
Petrov 2002
ISBN: 80-7227-137-7
Pages: 146
Foreign editions:
Hungarian (Ulpius Ház, 2005, V. Detre Zsuzsa), Bulgarian (Colibri, 2009, Anželina Penčeva), Polish (ATUT, 2009, Jan Stachowski), Arabian (Al Shaar, 2015, Ghias Mousli), Belarussian (Lohvino, 2015, Sjarhej Smatryčenka)
This Kratochvil’s novel was inspired by the events of September 11th 2001. The beast of the title is not Bin Laden or Islamic fundamentalism; it is a kind of an analogy for other forms of evil and violence, set in a horror-like story that is set in 1950’s Czechoslovakia. Although this story is a fiction, it is extremely convincing and up-to-date.
"Jiří Kratochvil‘s ninth novel does indeed show the author’s unique style: the environment of Brno, the fantastical contents, its meditative and philosophical character. It does not avoid more down-to-earth situations either , It is told with a wonderful ease and constructed on the base of a horror story. Kratochvil has always been brilliant at using the post-modernist feature of changing styles and varied motifs , as well as possessing an obsession with construction that is the mark of a great storyteller. This time all this combines with the key philosophical problems of our time – as ever, Kratochvil is topical in his writings and attitude towards the reader."
Tomáš Sedláček, Literární magazín, Czech Radio
