Michal Viewegh
Michal Viewegh (born
March 31 1962,
Prague) is one of the most popular contemporary
Czech writers and the bestselling one. He writes about romantic relationships of his contemporaries with humour, and variously successful irony and attempts at deeper meaningfulness; he is sometimes compared to
Nick Hornby by his fans.
His books, which since late 1990es he publishes regularly every spring, sell over 50 000 copies, bringing him an upper-high-class income uparallelled among Czech writers (by his own boastful admissions, his royalties from a successful book are roughly 8 years'
average Czech salary and his 2004 income was 4 million
CZK). Viewegh likes to point out this success with readers, as well as the fact that his books have been translated to several languages and made into films, since he fell out of favour with
critics in mid-1990es, which sentiment he heartily reciprocated in his following books.
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Názory na vraždu (
1990)
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Báječná léta pod psa (
Wonderful Years That Sucked,
1992) - humorous bestseller about the Communist era; made into a film in 1997 (co-scripted by
Jan Novak)
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Nápady laskavého čtenáře (
1993) - collection of literary parodies
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Výchova dívek v Čechách (
1994) - translated into
English by A. G. Brain (pseudonym of Gerald Turner) as
Bringing up Girls in Bohemia,
1996, ISBN 1887378057; made into a film in 1997
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Účastníci zájezdu (
Holiday Makers,
1996) - made into a film in 2006, successful at
Tribeca Film Festival*
Zapisovatelé otcovský lásky (
1998)
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Povídky o manželství a sexu (
Short Stories about Marriage and Sex,
1999)
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Nové nápady laskavého čtenáře (
2000) - second collection of literary parodies
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Román pro ženy (
Women's Novel,
2001) - made into a successful film in 2005
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Báječná léta s Klausem (
Wonderful Years with Klaus,
2002) - loose sequel to the first Wonderful Years criticising
Václav Klaus before the
Czech legislative election, 2002*
Případ nevěrné Kláry (
2003) - film in pre-production
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Vybíjená (
2004)
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Tři v háji (
2004) " together with
Halina Pawlowská and
Iva Hercíková*
Lekce tvůrčího psaní (
Lesson of Creative Writing,
2005)
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Báječný rok (
Wonderful Year,
2006) - a diary of 2005
collections of newspaper columns:
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Švédské stoly aneb Jací jsme (
2000)
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Na dvou židlích (
2004)
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A discussion of Viewegh on
Usenet* - links to films from his books
Works online in English:
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Hooter(short story), with a photo and brief biography
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The Blissful Years of Lousy Living - translated excerpt from
Báječná léta pod psa*
Another Mournful Joke - parody of
Milan Kundera
