I Served the King of England

Bohumil Hrabal · 1914–1997 · Czechia

Originally Obsluhoval Jsem Anglického Krále (Czech) · translated by Paul Wilson

Why it matters

A tiny waiter's picaresque rise through hotels, the occupation, and the new regime: ambition babbling through catastrophe. Hrabal's comic masterpiece, banned at home and circulated in samizdat.

At a glance

A garrulous, episodic first-person ramble that reads easily despite its historical sweep.