Europeana

Tracing the Great War through the Millennium Bug, 1999 through 1900, Dadaism through

Scientology through Sierra Leonean bicycle riding and back, award-winning Czech author Patrik

Ourednik explores the horror and absurdity of the twentieth century in an explosive

deconstruction of historical memory.

Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century opens on the beaches of Normandy in

1944, comparing the heights of different forces’ soldiers and considering how tall, long, or good

at fertilizing fields the men’s bodies will be. Probing the depths of humanity and inhumanity,

this is an account of history as it has never been told: “engaging, even frightening.” At once

recreating and uncreating the twentieth century, Ourednik explores the connections across the

decades between the disparate figures, events, and politics we thought we knew.

Patrik Ourednik’s Europeana merits the author’s reputation as a giant of post-1989 Czech

literature. Now translated into 33 languages, the book is a masterwork of cubism, a

polymorphic monologue of statistics and movements and fine print and discoveries that evokes

the deadpan absurdity of Kafka and the gallows humor of Hašek. Ourednik has created a

mesmerizing, maddening account of the past, and his interrogation of “truth” and objectivity

resonates now more than ever.