Jiří Kratochvil

born 1940
novelist, author of short stories, novels, essays and columns, playwright – author of theatre and radio plays 

“Kratochvil’s works of prose are the greatest events in Czech literature since 1989.” 
Milan Kundera

Jiří Kratochvil started publishing his works as early as the late 1960’s, but for the next twenty years, he appeared in samizdat only as he was not allowed to publish officially. After the fall of the communist regime, he soon became one of the most translated contemporary Czech authors: the work of Jiří Kratochvil has been already published in 10 languages. 
He has received many domestic literary prizes, most recently he has been nominated for the prestigious Magnesia Litera award for Czech Literature in the Prose category for 2007. 

Kratochvil is a leading figure in contemporary post-modernist Czech literature.

Latest news (Summer 2010)
The media response for the German edition of Jiří Kratochvil´s novel Promise / Slib (Das Versprechen des Architekten) are more than „promising“. The whole page reviews appeared in leading newspapers, the author had his extended interview on TV prime time news on the ORF 1 channel. In June, the book appeared on the German best 10 crime fiction list of the daily Die Welt, and in Salzburger Nachrichten, it was voted the book of the month.
More on the Kratochvil´s Austrian publisher´s pages here.