Arnošt Lustig, novelist, short-story writer, and screenwriter, left Prague during the Soviet invasion of 1968 and now teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. His novels include Dita Saxova, The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S., and A Prayer for Katerina Horovitzova; his collections of short stories include Indecent Dreams, Diamonds of the Night, and Street of Lost Brothers. Among his films are Dita Saxova’ and Diamonds of the Night. Almost all of Lustig’s literary and film work explores the theme of the Holocaust and his experiences during the war.
Arnošt Lustig’s awards include a National Book Award nomination for A Prayer of Katerina Horovitzova, two Jewish National Book Awards, an Emmy for a television screenplay, and the Karel Capek Prize of the Czech Pen Club.
Fiction
Summer 1996
The Flood
From the Czech. Rainy nights in Auschwitz-Birkenau resembled a flood. Clouds threatened rain. It looked like it would start raining and never stop. In October 1944, William Feld became an […]
Fiction
Spring 2002
From “Tanga, a Girl from Hamburg”
From the Czech. Translator’s Preface Tanga, Dívka z Hamburku (Tanga, a Girl from Hamburg) is one of many works—including Dita Saxova, The Unloved, and A Prayer for Katerina Horovitzova—by Arnošt […]
Nonfiction
Autumn 1990
Return to Czechoslovakia: Snapshots of a Revolution
I am writing this article in the sixth week of the cultural revolution of Czechoslovakia. The country is lighter, freer, and happier than during any of the last forty years. […]
Fiction
Winter 1990
A Man the Size of a Postage Stamp
Don’t react to a mad man if you don’t want to be like him. Answer a mad man’s madness so he doesn’t think how wise he is. —Jewish Proverbs Nobody […]
Fiction
Spring 1991
Colette
From the Czech. Colette of Antwerp’s story is not easy to tell. It’s full of everything that accompanies beauty; but as in any story about an unusually beautiful woman, some […]
Fiction
Spring 1999
Kůstka
From the Czech. There are a lot of borders that I can’t cross,” Kůstka said. Was she thinking of the border of fear? The border of revulsion? Or of anguish? […]
Fiction
Summer 2005
The Gendarme
From the Czech. “The SS has a soft heart and a hard heart. It depends on you which heart I’ll show you.”—SS Camp Inspector Bergel of the Terezín Ghetto Near […]