The Golden Age
( Czech - Zlatý věk - 2001 )
novel by Michal Ajvaz
translated by Andrew Oakland
Published: Dalkay Archive Press - trade paperback - 2010
ISBN: 1564785785 / 9781564785787
Dalkey Archive Press - Kindle - 2010
ASIN: B003VIWU2E
synopsis
A fantastical travelogue in which a modern-day Gulliver writes a book about a civilization he once encountered on a tiny island in the Atlantic. The islanders seem at first to do nothing but sit and observe the world, and indeed draw no distinction between reality and representation, so that a mirror image seems as substantial to them as a person ( and vice versa ); but the center of their culture is revealed to be The Book, a handwritten, collective novel filled with feuding royal families, murderous sorcerers, and narrow escapes. Anyone is free to write in The Book, adding their own stories, crossing out others, or even ap- pending footnotes in the form of little paper pouches full of extra text - but of course there are pouches within pouches, so that the story is impossible to read in order, and soon begins to overwhelm the narrator's orderly treatise.
awards
Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards ( long form ) - 2011
( Czech - Zlatý věk - 2001 )
novel by Michal Ajvaz
translated by Andrew Oakland
Published: Dalkay Archive Press - trade paperback - 2010
ISBN: 1564785785 / 9781564785787
Dalkey Archive Press - Kindle - 2010
ASIN: B003VIWU2E
synopsis
A fantastical travelogue in which a modern-day Gulliver writes a book about a civilization he once encountered on a tiny island in the Atlantic. The islanders seem at first to do nothing but sit and observe the world, and indeed draw no distinction between reality and representation, so that a mirror image seems as substantial to them as a person ( and vice versa ); but the center of their culture is revealed to be The Book, a handwritten, collective novel filled with feuding royal families, murderous sorcerers, and narrow escapes. Anyone is free to write in The Book, adding their own stories, crossing out others, or even ap- pending footnotes in the form of little paper pouches full of extra text - but of course there are pouches within pouches, so that the story is impossible to read in order, and soon begins to overwhelm the narrator's orderly treatise.
awards
Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards ( long form ) - 2011