Robinsons and Don Quixotes – Book Launch

The journalist and writer Aleš Palán has a gift for finding unique individuals who plough their own furrow beyond the bounds of everyday society. His book of interviews with Šumava lone wolves Raději zešílet v divočině (Better to Go Crazy in the Wilderness) (2018) came first in the Lidové noviny Book of the Year poll and became a bestseller, as did Jako v nebi, jenže jinak (Like in Heaven But Different) (2019), which was in a similar key and won a Magnesia Litera prize. In his new book Robinsoni a donkichoti (Robinsons and Don Quixotes) the author has put together the stories of seven idiosyncratic types who are closer to us than those in Šumava, crossing our paths on the street, on the bus, anywhere. They are not connected by solitude like the lone wolves who have withdrawn from civilisation to the forests, bogs and mountains. However, a certain resignation is apparent. “I didn’t have the strength to go with the flow, much less go against it,” says one. These people have created their own micro-worlds, fascinating universes where their own rules apply. They are near others yet also far away.