Miloš Urban (born 4 October 1967 in
Sokolov,
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
) is a
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus
*Czech (surnam ...
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...
and horror writer, known as the "dark knight of Czech literature".
He is best known for his 1999 novel ''
Sedmikostelí'', a Gothic crime horror set in Prague, which was translated into 11 languages. He is also a translator, and has translated works by authors including
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer (; 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Poland, Polish-born Jews, Jewish novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, essayist, and translator in the United States. Some of his works were adapted for the theater. He wrote and publish ...
and
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and ''Arthu ...
into Czech.
He was the winner of the 2002
Magnesia Litera
Magnesia Litera is an annual literary award, book award held in the Czech Republic since 2002. The prize covers all literary genres in eight genre categories: prose, poetry, children's literature, children's book (since 2004), non-fiction, essay/jo ...
prize for prose writing for his 2001 novel ''Hastrman'', as well as the 1996 Mladá fronta prize for his translation of Barnes' ''
Flaubert's Parrot''.
As well as the Czech Republic, Urban's books have found considerable commercial success in
Spanish-speaking countries
The following is a list of countries where Spanish is an official language, plus several countries where Spanish language, Spanish or any language closely related to it, is an important or significant language.
There are 20 UN member states whe ...
.
Early life
Urban was born in
Sokolov in 1967 and grew up in
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
. He spent a part of his childhood living in the Czechoslovak embassy in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
before moving back to
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
to study Nordic and English Studies at the
Faculty of Arts
A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...
of
Charles University
Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...
, which included a year studying abroad at
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
.
After graduating he worked as an editor for
Mladá fronta, then as editor-in-chief for Argo, the publishing house which later released his books.
In 1996 Urban won the Mladá fronta Prize for his translation of ''
Flaubert's Parrot'' by British writer
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and ''Arthu ...
.
Literary career
Urban's first novel was ''The Final Mark on the Manuscripts'', released in 1998, a
mockumentary
A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...
novel released under the pseudonym "Josef Urban", also the name of the novel's narrator. The book's plot revolves around the
manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and of Zelená Hora
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...
.
It was positively received and later re-issued by Argo in 2005 under Urban's real name.
Later the same year, Urban released his best-known work, ''
The Seven Churches'',
(), a Gothic historical thriller set in
New Town, Prague
New Town () is a quarter in the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. New Town is the youngest and largest of the five independent (from the Middle Ages until 1784) towns that today comprise the historic center of modern Prague. New Town was found ...
, about a man named Kvetoslav Svach, and how he is linked to murders in seven cathedrals of the city. It has been acclaimed as a masterpiece of modern
gothic literature
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean m ...
; Urban was praised as "the dark knight of Czech literature" and the book has been translated into 11 languages (English, German, French, Dutch, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, Slovene, Croatian, Polish, and
Bulgarian).
''The Seven Churches'' was the first of a loose trilogy known as the "church trilogy".
''Hastrman'' came out in 2001. The novel received the
Magnesia Litera
Magnesia Litera is an annual literary award, book award held in the Czech Republic since 2002. The prize covers all literary genres in eight genre categories: prose, poetry, children's literature, children's book (since 2004), non-fiction, essay/jo ...
Award for prose writing,
and has been translated into Hungarian. A
film based on the novel was produced in 2018. It is a controversial, uncompromising story combining motifs from Czech myths and folktales with the issue of ecology.
Urban follows the story of a water-goblin through several centuries to create a parable for the environmental damage caused by humans.
This book was followed the following year by ''Memoirs of an MP'', the so-called "sexy novel" and a considerable departure from Urban's previous books, which was described as "the most searing, most bizarre and most anarchistic condemnation of democratic totalitarianism".
Urban next returned to the final two books of the "church trilogy": ''Shadow of the Cathedral'' (2003), which sold out within two weeks of its release,
and ''Santini's Language'' (2005), which drew comparisons to
Dan Brown
Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon (book series), Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), '' ...
.
In 2007 Urban released ''Fields and Palisades: The Myth of the Princess and the Farmer'', a version of the story of
Přemysl the Ploughman
Přemysl the Ploughman ( ''Přemysl Oráč''; English: Premysl, Przemysl or Primislaus) was the legendary husband of Libuše, and ancestor of the Přemyslid dynasty, containing the line of princes (dukes) and kings which ruled in the Lands of t ...
and
Libuše
, Libussa, Libushe or, historically ''Lubossa'', is a legendary ancestor of the Přemyslid dynasty and the Czechs, Czech people as a whole. According to legend, she was the youngest but wisest of three sisters, who became queen after their father ...
, the legendary
origin story
In fiction, an origin story is an account or backstory revealing how a character or group of people become a protagonist or antagonist.
In American comic books, it also refers to how characters gained their superpowers and/or the circumstances ...
of the
Czech people
The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, ...
, as part of the
Canongate Myth Series
The ''Canongate Myth Series'' is a series of novellas published by the independent Scottish publisher Canongate Books, in which ancient myths from various cultures are reimagined and rewritten. The project was conceived in 1999 by Jamie Byng, own ...
.
This was followed by 2008's ''Dead Girls'', an anthology of gothic mysteries written between 2002 and 2006.
A review in Czech daily ''
Právo
''Právo'' () is a Czech daily newspaper published in Prague, Czech Republic.
History and profile
''Právo'' emerged in 1991 following the Velvet Revolution, when some editors of the daily '' Rudé právo'' founded a new company unaffiliated ...
'' said that "Urban writes wonderful gothic mystery stories – and even
Jakub Arbes
Jakub Arbes (12 June 1840, in Prague (Smíchov) – 8 April 1914) was a Czech writer and intellectual. He is best known as the creator of the literary genre called '' romanetto'' and spent much of his professional life in France.
Life and Poli ...
might envy him this collection".
''
Lord Mord'', released the same year, is set amid the
slum clearance
Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
of Prague in the late 19th century, in which the murder of prostitutes is employed as an allegory for the harm caused to the city.
In 2011 Urban released ''Boletus arcanus'', a satire about drug dependency and human need that references the Czech pastime of
mushroom picking.
''Praga Picolla'', released the following year, is a more traditional historical novel set in the time of the
First Czechoslovak Republic
The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechosl ...
.
This was followed in 2014 by ''She Came From The Sea'', a detective mystery about a girl who emerges from the sea on the British coast one day without explanation.
In 2015, Urban released ''Urbo Kune'', a sci-fi tinged novel written as a response to a request from Vienna architect,
Jan Tabor, for European artists and writers to join a project dedicated to a united Europe.
Personal life
As of 2009, Urban lived in the
Bohnice
Bohnice () is a cadastral district in Prague 8, Czechia, some 5 km north of the city centre. It is home to a psychiatric hospital and a large tenement housing estate in which all the streets are named after cities or regions of Poland.
Ps ...
district of Prague.
He works as a writer, translator, and editor in a publishing house.
Works
* ''The Final Mark on the Manuscripts'' (; Argo, 1998)
* ''
The Seven Churches'' (; Argo, 1998)
* ''Hastrman'' (Argo, 2001) - also known as ''The Water-Goblin''
* ''Memoirs of an MP'' (; Argo, 2002)
* ''The Shadow of the Cathedral'' (; Argo, 2003)
* ''Santini's Language'' (; Argo, 2005)
* ''Fields and Palisades: The Myth of the Princess and the Farmer'' (; Argo, 2007)
* ''Dead Girls'' (; Argo, 2008) - a short story anthology
* ''Lord Mord'' (Argo, 2008)
* ''Boletus arcanus'' (Argo, 2011)
* ''Praga picolla'' (Argo, 2012)
* ''She Came from the Sea'' (; Argo, 2014)
* ''Urbo Kune'' (Argo, 2015)
References
External links
Miloš Urban (Argo)* Dominik Jůn
Interview with Czech author Miloš Urban Czech Radio
Czech Radio (, ČRo) is the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating continuously since 1923. It is the oldest national radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second-oldest in Europe after the BBC. Czech Radio was esta ...
, 10. 1. 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urban, Milos
1967 births
Living people
People from Sokolov
Czech crime fiction writers
Czech male novelists
Horror writers
English–Czech translators
Charles University alumni