One of the great prose stylists of the 20th century; the scourge of state censors; the gregarious bar hound and lover of gossip, beer, cats and women -- Parul Sehgal Hrabal, to my mind, is one of the greatest European prose writers -- Philip Roth Hrabal was, for all his eccentricity, a major figure in 20th-century world literature -- Jonathan Coe The very best writer -- Milan Kundera A most sophisticated novelist, with a gusting humor and a hushed tenderness of detail -- Julian Barnes A stunningly revealing, occasionally deranged exploration of self, with cat ownership the frame through which that exploration is presented, by one of postwar Europe's greatest writers -- Kevin O'Rourke * Michigan Quarterly Review *
