City, Sister, Silver

About the Author and the Translator

Jáchym Topol was born in Prague on August 4, 1962, son of Josef Topol, a renowned playwright, poet, and Shakespeare translator. Topol’s writing began in the late 70s and early 80s with lyrics for the rock band Psí vojáci (Dog Soldiers), led by his younger brother, Filip (the relationship has continued: poems from this novel were set to music and released as the CD Sestra: Jáchym Topol &Psí Vojáci).

In 1985 Topol cofounded Revolver Revue, a samizdat review specializing in new Czech writing. Topol played an active role in the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, writing, editing, and publishing an independent newsletter that became the investigative weekly Respekt.

Topol’s first collection of poetry, I Love You Madly (samizdat, 1988), received the Tom Stoppard Prize for Unofficial Literature. His second volume of poetry, The War Will Be On Tuesday, came out in 1993. City Sister Silver, Topol’s first novel, won the Egon Hostovský Prize as Czech book of the year in 1994. His story “A Trip to the Train Station” was published in a Czech-English edition (the English translation by Alex Zucker) in 1995. Topol has since published a novella and translations of American Indian myths.

Topol lives in Prague with his wife and his daughter.

Alex Zucker has translated More Than One Life by Miloslava Holubová (1999), A Trip to the Train Station by Jáchym Topol (1995), and a number of stories and poems published in literary magazines and anthologies in the U.S., U.K., and Czech Republic. For several years after the Velvet Revolution, he lived in Prague, translating and copy editing. He now lives in New York City.