Cutting It Short (Penguin Modern Classics)

'As I crammed the cream horn voraciously into my mouth, at once I heardFrancin's voice saying that no decent woman would eat a cream puff likethat'

In a quiet town where not much happens, Maryska, theflamboyant brewer's wife, stands out. She cuts her skirt short so thatshe can ride her bicycle, her golden hair flying out behind her. Shebutchers pigs. She drinks and eats with relish. And when the garrulousranconteur Uncle Pepin comes to visit the locals are scandalized evenfurther, in Bohumil Hrabal's affecting, exuberant portrayal of a smallcentral European community between the wars.

'One of the greatest European prose writers' Philip Roth

'Hrabal combines good humour and hilarity with tenderness' Observer