The Cowards
  • Published: 9 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141047676
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $35.00

The Cowards

Formats & editions
EBook
6 May 2010
Paperback
9 Jul 2010
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'Benno blew a long note and it sounded hard and very sure, so I stopped worrying about him losing his tone while he was in the concentration camp. He hadn't.'

The Cowards (1958) is Josef Skvorecky's blackly comic tale of post-war politics that was immediately banned on publication. In 1945, in Kostelec,Danny is playing saxophone for the best jazz band in Czechoslovakia. Their trumpeter has just got out of a concentration camp, their bass player is only allowed in the band since he owns the bass, and the love of Danny's life is in love with somebody else. But Danny despairs most about the bourgeoisie patriots in his town playing at revolution in the face of the approaching Red Army - not least because it ruins the band's chance of any good gigs.
  • Published: 9 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141047676
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $35.00
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Praise for The Cowards

Anyone who wants to know how it felt to be young, idealistic and innocent at the end of the war should read The Cowards

The Times Literary Supplement

Sceptical, humourous, liberal and humane.

London Review of Books

[The series] sheds remarkable light on the literature, culture and politics of the region...anyone coming fresh to the field will be captivated by the richness, variety, humour and pathos of a classic literature that, through a shared historical experience, transcends national and linguistic boundaries.

CJ Schüler, Independent on Sunday

This [series] is a wonderful idea ... They are absurdist parables, by turns hilarious, unsettling and enigmatic.

Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

I urge you to go and read them.

Adam Thirlwell, New Statesman

This new series of Central European Classics is important well beyond simply providing 'good reads'.

Stephen Vizinczey, Daily Telegraph
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