Pavel Vilikovský

photo of Pavel Vilikovsky by Peter Stanley Prochazka

photo by Peter Stanley Procházka

Pavel Vilikovský (1941–2020) was one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Slovak literature, both domestically and internationally. A member of a strong generation of writers that emerged in the 1960s, fundamentally transforming Slovak fiction, he really came to the fore only after 1989, when he was able to publish without the compromises and constraints of communist censorship. His inimitable gifts of observation and ability to find the artistically effective in apparently mundane everyday life are the hallmarks of his highly acclaimed literary works, which have acquired the status of modern classics. Vilikovský’s Večne je zelený… (Ever Green Is…, 1989) has been hailed as a postmodernist masterpiece, and his recent works such as Pes na ceste (Dog on the Road, 2010), Vlastný životopis zla (The Autobiography of Evil, 2009) and Letmý sneh (Fleeting Snow, 2014) have been praised for their caustic wit, characteristic Central European melancholy but, above all, Vilikovský’s brilliant, clear and dangerously precise language. He is the only author to be twice awarded Slovakia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Anasoft Litera, for which his last work, RAJc je preč (The Thrill Is Gone, 2018) was also shortlisted.

Available in English

front cover of Pavel Vilikovsky - Ever Green Is

Ever Green Is …

Selected Prose

translated by

Charles Sabatos

front cover of Pavel Vilikovsky - Fleeting Snow

Fleeting Snow

translated by

Julia and Peter Sherwood

front cover of Slovak Fiction: Review of Contemporary Fiction

featuring the essay

“All I Know

about Central Europeanism

(with a bit of friendly help

from Olomouc and Camus)”

translated by

Clarice Cloutier

front cover of The Dedalus Book of Slovak Literature

featuring the short story

“Escalation of Feeling I”

translated by

Denis Dobrovoda

front cover of Into the Spotlight

featuring an excerpt

from First and Last Love

translated by

Magdalena Mullek

Read Online

© Mullek and Sherwood