Last Bell

A maid who is unexpectedly left her wealthy employers' worldly possessions, when they flee the country after the Nazi occupation; a loyal bank clerk, who steals a Renaissance portrait of a Spanish noblewoman, and falls into troublesome love with her; a middle-aged travel agent, who is perhaps the least well-travelled man in the city and advises his clients from what he has read in books, anxiously awaits his looming honeymoon; a widowed villager, whose 'magnetic' (or perhaps 'crazy') twelve-year-old daughter witnesses a disturbing event; and a tiny village thrown into civil war by the disappearance of a freshly baked cheesecake - these stories about the tremendous upheaval which results when the ordinary encounters the unexpected are vividly told, with both humour and humanity. This is the first ever English publication of these both literally and metaphorically enchanting Bohemian tales, by one of the great overlooked writers of the twentieth century.

O femeie de serviciu care, in mod neasteptat, a parasit posesiunile bogate ale angajatorilor ei, cand fug din tara dupa ocupatia nazista; un functionar bancar loial, care fura un portret renascentist al unei nobile spaniole si cade in dragoste suparatoare cu ea; un agent de turism de varsta mijlocie, care este poate cel mai putin calatorit om din oras si isi sfatuieste clientii din ceea ce a citit in carti, isi asteapta cu nerabdare luna de miere care se apropie; un satean vaduv, a carui fiica „magnetica” (sau poate „nebuna”) de doisprezece ani asista la un eveniment tulburator; si un mic sat aruncat in razboiul civil de disparitia unui tort de branza proaspat coapta - aceste povesti despre revolta extraordinara care rezulta atunci cand intalnirile obisnuite cu neasteptatele sunt povestite in mod viu, atat cu umor, cat si cu umanitate.