Life after Kafka: A Conversation with Magdaléna Platzová and Alex Zucker

RETHINKING TRANSLATION

SPEAKERS: Magdaléna Platzová, Writer; Alex Zucker, Translator

Moderator: Jonathan Bolton, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

Life after Kafka, Magdalena Platzová’s newest novel, tells the story of Felice Bauer, the addressee of Franz Kafka's famous Letters to Felice, who has long been in the shadow of her world-famous fiancé. The novel begins in 1935 as Felice and her children flee from Hitler's Berlin; years later, a man claiming to be Kafka’s son approaches Felice’s son in Manhattan, and the drama surrounding Kafka’s letters to Felice begins. This meticulously researched and imaginative novel was a finalist for the prestigious Magnesia Litera Award when it appeared in Czech in 2023; the superb English translation by Alex Zucker has just been published by Bellevue Literary Press.

“Franz Kafka is a universe that resists any attempt at interpretation. Magdaléna Platzová’s novel offers a new key to Kafka’s world: we look at it through the tender and sorrowful gaze of the people whose fate had been marked by him personally. An utterly touching book!" -Agnieszka Holland, award-winning filmmaker and president of the European Film Academy

Magdaléna Platzová is the author of nine books, including three novels published in English: Aaron’s Leap, a Lidové Noviny Book of the Year Award finalist; The Attempt, longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and a Czech Book Award finalist; and Life After Kafka, a Magnesia Litera award finalist. She grew up in the Czech Republic, studied in the United States and England, and now resides in France.

Award-winning translator Alex Zucker has translated novels by Magdaléna Platzová, Jáchym Topol, Bianca Bellová, Petra Hůlová, Tomáš Zmeškal, and other Czech writers, as well as numerous stories, plays, subtitles, young adult and children’s books, song lyrics, reportages, essays, poems, philosophy, art history, and an opera.