The End of the World

May 2015, 264 pages

Available material: English sample

Foreign editions: Poland (Fundajca Pogranizce), USA (Twisted Spoon), Spain (Editorial Melusina), The Netherlands (Voetnoot)

Ten short stories, ten precise descriptions of ten situations, which take place either right in the magical mid-nineties or look back through the dirty glass of today at the eighties. What these stories have in common is clear direction and a concise style free of pathos. Though the themes of the writer are close to our present lives, there is something in the texts reminiscent of underground literature. Perhaps it is because the most of the heroes are outsiders: barmaids, drug addicts, the homeless, foreign workers from the Ukraine and other characters who try amidst the ever bubbling eruptions of our time to maintain (most of the time without success) an inner independence, to find a space where their need for freedom and positive relations can survive. Hakl’s short stories belong to the best Czech prose of the last few years.