FICTION

Harlequin's Millions

by Bohumil Hrabal
Archipelago. 2014. 260p. tr. from Czech by Stacey Knecht. ISBN 9780981955735. pap. $18; ebk. ISBN 9781935744443. F
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This charmer from the late, great Czech author (Closely Watched Trains) is set at the castle of Count Špork, which is now a retirement home; its newest residents are the narrator and her husband, Francin. If there's a castle, there's a fairy tale, and fairy tales mean adventure (our protagonists make some interesting discoveries as they explore the grounds) and magic, as in magical language, flowingly abundant here (each chapter is a single paragraph). The characters don't just dwell in the present but reconstruct the past, not always golden—although the book surely is.
Reviewed by Barbara Hoffert , Dec 01, 2014
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