The winner of the Czech Book Award wrote a novel about a search of an artistic expression

Jan Němec, a young 33 years old writer, became the third laureate of the Czech Book Award with his novel Dějiny světla (“History of Light”). The biographic novel about the Czech photographer František Drtikol describes a difficult search for a real artistic expression. The winner got the prime of 35 000 Czech crowns and one week stay in one of European capitals offered by Czech centres in Prague.

The Readers Award of the Czech Book, attributed for the second first time, went to Věra Nosková for her novel Proměny (“Changes”). She obtained 108 of the total of 609 readers’ votes. Five Prague newspapers had participated in the organization of the Readers Award. One month residence abroad was offered by Arts Institute in Prague to the winner. Representatives from four publishing houses, ‘World observers’ to the Czech Book Award, attended to the awards ceremony in Prague: Braumüller, Austria; Afera, Poland; Atut, Poland; Globus, Russia

The objective of the Czech Book Award, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture in Prague, is to promote the young Czech literature in the world. In two years of its existence, six books have been published (or are in project of publication) under this original concept.