Citlivý člověk

(A Sensitive Man)

About the book
Original title Citlivý člověk
First published 2017
Publisher Torst, Prague
Pages 360
ISBN number 978-80-7215-541-5
Languages Czech


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Rights sold to
United States Yale University Press - New Haven
France/Switzerland Noir sur Blanc - Lausanne
Germany Suhrkamp - Berlin
The Netherlands Voetnoot publishers - Antverp
Poland Czarne - Sękowa
Italy Keller editore - Rovereto
Serbia Heliks - Belgrade
Egypt Al Kotob Khan - Cairo
Lithuania Aukso žuvys - Vilnius
Croatia VBZ - Zagreb
North Macedonia ArtConnect - Skopje
Sweden Ramus Förlag - Malmö


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A few words

Welcome to the Wild East!

Moor, a middle-aged actor travels around Europe with his wife Olga and two kids. They attend theatre festivals, where they perform their plays. Being confronted with a growing resentment towards foreigners ('LEAVE MEANS LEAVE! POLISH VERMIN!'), Moor decides, after decades spending abroad, to return home to the Czech Republic to settle down. After being caught by accident in the midst of the Ukrainian-Russian war they finally reach their home region on the banks of the river Sázava, south-east of Prague.

Back home Sonja has a miscarriage and is taken into hospital, while Moor is accused of murdering his father-in-law. He escapes the law and together with his two sons embarks upon a kind of road trip through the region, trying to make his way to the hospital. They go on foot, by car and by boat and encounter a series of local people, stories and events. We meet clans, hookers, loan sharks, gypsies, hoodlums, drunks, telltales. All leads up to a grand finale including a wedding, a brothel, the police and a Russian tank.

On the Czech cover Topol's novel is characterized as a 'political contemporary novel'. A Sensitive Man is comical and brutal, smartly sensual, carnivalesque, but strictly organized and with a firm grip on the story. It is a down to earth grotesque about 'finding God and sparks of humanity in the most remote places'. But is much more than that: it is an existential tour or trip, where even in the most exuberant episodes, love or the longing for love comes to live. The book catches the Zeitgeist.

A Sensitive Man has its own specific dynamic and rhythm. Full speed grotesque episodes alternate with witty and vivid dialogues; poetical descriptions contrast with the vulgar, explicit speech of the protagonists. It is a story about ordinary people who are not inhibited by any political correctness and who try to find their way in a community, in a world that changes. Topol ticks all boxes: love and death, religion, family, friendship, survival, modern politics, the Russian threat, Europe and populism. The novel reflects European society of today. And the characters in Topol's novel are rough people, brutal, but with a heart. They are all sensitive.

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