The page of Ajvaz, Michal, English biography
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Biography
born 1949
novelist, poet, essayist and translator
Michal Ajvaz was awarded Jaroslav Seifert Prize (2005) for his latest novel Empty Streets / Prázdné ulice, for the same novel he was also nominated for the State Prize for Literature.
Philosophically and aesthetically erudite writer, Michal Ajvaz constructs his texts as one would build a house – he piles the levels of his story up one on top of the other, which is similar to the concept of computer games or to he picture of a Dutch lady depicted on a can of cocoa, holding a can of cocoa with a picture of a Dutch lady... Michal Ajvaz makes philosophical excursions along with linguistic explanations, lectures on literary theory, scenes on the verge of phantasmagoria, bizarre findings from animal or plant world and mysterious journeys – all this actually follows a single path with a single purpose: destabilising the absolute trust in human way of exploring the world, the ideas we create about ourselves and the environment surrounding us.
In the past three years the work of Michal Ajvaz has been published in four countries (Russia, Poland, France and Hungary), and publication is pending in two more (the USA and Croatia).
