Michal Viewegh

Michal Viewegh

Michal Viewegh (born March 31, 1962, Prague) is one of the most popular contemporary Czech writers and the bestselling one. He writes about romantic relationships of his contemporaries with humour, variously successful irony as well as attempts at deeper meaningfulness; he is sometimes compared to Nick Hornby by his fans.

His books, since the late 1990s published every spring, usually sell about 50,000 copies each, bringing him an upper-high-class income unparalleled among Czech writers. By his own boastful admissions, his royalties from a successful book are equal to roughly 8 years of an average Czech salary. His 2004 income was CZK four million. Viewegh likes to point out this success with readers, as well as the fact that his books have been translated to several languages and made into films, since he fell out of favor with critics in the mid-1990s, which sentiment he heartily reciprocated in his following books.

Viewegh is a political adversary of the former Czech president Václav Klaus. In some of his recent novels this attitude has been strongly and pointedly manifested.

In late 2012 Viewegh suffered a traumatic aortic rupture, his health condition was serious. He is out of danger now, rehabilitating at the Prague's Malvazinky clinic. Though his ability to write again is questioned.

Bibliography

• Názory na vraždu (1990)
• Báječná léta pod psa (The Blissful Years of Lousy Living, 1992) - humorous bestseller about the Communist era; made into a film in 1997 (co-scripted by Jan Novák)
• Nápady laskavého čtenáře (1993) - collection of literary parodies
• Výchova dívek v Čechách (1994) - translated into English by A. G. Brain (pseudonym of Gerald Turner) as Bringing up Girls in Bohemia, 1996, ISBN 1-887378-05-7; made into a film in 1997
• Účastníci zájezdu (The Sightseers, 1996) - made into a film in 2006, successful at Tribeca Film Festival
• Zapisovatelé otcovský lásky (1998)
• Povídky o manželství a sexu (Short Stories about Marriage and Sex, 1999)
• Nové nápady laskavého čtenáře (2000) - second collection of literary parodies
• Román pro ženy (Women's Novel, 2001) - made into a successful film in 2005
• Báječná léta s Klausem (Wonderful Years with Klaus, 2002) - loose sequel to the first Wonderful Years criticising Václav Klaus before the Czech legislative election, 2002
• Případ nevěrné Kláry (2003) - made in Italian-Czech co-production in 2009, box office flop.
• Vybíjená (2004)
• Tři v háji (2004) – together with Halina Pawlowská and Iva Hercíková
• Lekce tvůrčího psaní (Lesson of Creative Writing, 2005)
• Báječný rok (Wonderful Year, 2006) - a diary of 2005
• Andělé všedního dne, 2007 - novella with experience about his father's death, publishing house Druhé město
• Román pro muže (Men's Novel) - published in 2008 by Druhé město.
• Něco na těch Vánocích být musí (What´s So Special About Christmas, Anyway?) - short story collection published in 2010 by Garamond (Czech/English parallel text)

collections of newspaper columns:

• Švédské stoly aneb Jací jsme (2000)
• Na dvou židlích (2004)

References and external links

• http://www.dbagency.cz/index.php?s=author&pid=16&name=michal-viewegh - references to MV books´ sales.

• Michal Viewegh at IMDb - links to films from his books
• Michal Viewegh at Czechoslovak book network Baila.net

Works online in English:

• Hooter(short story), with a photo and brief biography
• The Blissful Years of Lousy Living - translated excerpt from Báječná léta pod psa
• Another Mournful Joke - parody of Milan Kundera