Too Loud a Solitude

A short novel by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, called "our very best writer today" by Milan Kundera, this eccentric romp celebrates the indestructabilityagainst censorship and political oppressionof the written word. Too Loud a Solitude is a tender and funny story of Hantaa man who has lived in a Czech police statefor 35 years, working as compactor of wastepaper and books. In the process of compacting, he has acquired an education so unwitting he can't quite tell which of his thoughts are his own and which come from his books. He has rescued many from jaws of hydraulic press and now his house is filled to the rooftops. Destroyer of the written word, he is also its perpetrator. But when a new automatic press makes his job redundant there's only one thing he can dogo down with his ship. Translated by Michael Henry Heim.