Too Loud a Solitude
Bohumil Hrabal · 1976
About this book
Hrabal's lyrical novella about a man who has spent thirty-five years compacting wastepaper — including banned books — in a hydraulic press is a love letter to literature and a meditation on the destruction of culture. Written during the normalization period when Czech culture was being systematically suppressed, it carries an almost unbearable poignancy. The book embodies the Czech reverence for books and ideas as tools of spiritual survival.
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