A Christmas story from Prague
City Library: Jaroslav Rudiš reads on 4 December, 7 pm, at TIETZ
On Monday 4 December at 7 pm, Czech author Jaroslav Rudiš will read a heart-wrenching Christmas story from snowy Prague in the TIETZ Central Library.
Admission costs 8 euros, concessions 4 euros. Tickets can be reserved at: https://www.stadtbibliothek-chemnitz.de/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungsbuchung
The book
Christmas, Christmas Eve. Probably the quietest day of the year in Prague. Jaroslav Rudiš wanders through the metropolis on the Vltava. It's snowing, it's cold and the streets are empty. And yet the old and new stories of this city are everywhere. Rudiš waits for his friends and stops off at a few pubs in the meantime. Here he meets three lonely figures over a freshly tapped beer: Kavka (called Kafka), the King of Prague and an Italian woman from Milan. They all talk about this special day of the year. Of glowing pears and warming hands, of carp in pickle jars with the city's deceased inhabitants still staring out of their eyes, and of the Christ Child who comes to the same pub every year and steals away again on the rattling tram.
The author
Jaroslav Rudiš, born in Czechoslovakia in 1972, now lives in Lomnice nad Popelkou and Berlin and is an author, screenwriter, playwright and musician. He studied German and history in Liberec, Zurich and Berlin and has worked as a teacher and journalist. His novels "Grand Hotel", "Vom Ende des Punks in Helsinki", "Nationalstraße", "Winterbergs letzte Reise" and "Der Himmel unter Berlin" were published by Luchterhand. He has also published the graphic novels "Alois Nebel" (with Jaromír 99) and "Nachtgestalten" (with Nicolas Mahler). In 2012/13, Rudiš held the Siegfried-Unseld Visiting Professorship at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
In 2014 he was awarded the Usedomer Literaturpreis and in 2018 he received the Preis der Literaturhäuser. In 2019, he was nominated in the "Fiction" category at the Leipzig Book Fair for his novel "Winterberg's Last Journey" - the first volume he wrote in German. In 2020, he received the Chamisso Prize for it. Rudiš' works have been translated into numerous languages and made into films. In 2021, he was also honoured with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany as "one of the most committed bridge builders between Germany and the Czech Republic".