A Czech Publisher

Beautiful Prague. Photo: © F.Hardy

…and a surprise trip

We were off to Prague for a friend’s birthday treat that had been organised for some time. Six of us were going and we planned to surprise our friend at the airport. Prague is one of my favourite cities and this was my fourth visit – the first was in 1992 when there were no tourists. I never tire of going as there is always something new to see, and the restaurants are great! My friends had never been to Prague before and were impressed by the friendliness – and cleanliness – of the city.

I planned to polish my family’s memorial stones while I was there. My Stolpersteine (stepping stones) were created and dug into the pavement by German artist, Gunther Demnig in 2018. It’s a huge ongoing project and Gunther has placed stepping stones in all the cities where people were murdered by the Nazis. People normally locate the bronze stones outside the door of the last place their family member(s) were known to have lived. To date they are stones in at least 1,200 different places that include Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

But imagine my surprise when, just a week before setting off for Prague, I was told by my UK publisher that my book had been scouted by the biggest publisher in the Czech Republic, Euromedia. They are going to translate it into Czech and sell it all over the country. It made sense to go to their office to meet the people I will be working with. I walked there along the river from my apartment and it was a little difficult to find, as their offices are scattered all over the place. Anyway, I found the Non-Fiction department in time for my meeting, which was in an impressive modern office. I’m excited to have my first non-English language book and wonder whether my name will appear in it as Felice Hardyová!