Beef Cubes

April 2014, 208 pages

A collection of short stories sharing a narrator, but spanning a number of eras. The first takes place in 1986 on a bizarre journey through Bulgaria, the last in a Prague teahouse. The stories are arranged chronologically, thereby forming a kind of time-lapse, although it is a false one as the texts are brand new. The topic of the collection is the change that has occurred over nearly thirty years − around the narrator, and inside him. Those who enjoy Hakl’s short stories will find the old Hakl with a rich narrative register enriched by fresh changes between narrators. Occasional waves of eccentric melancholy and murmurs of emotional scars alternate with rhythmic abruptness and moments crafted with surgical precision.