The Engineer of Human Souls

Josef Skvorecky [ Translated by Paul Wilson ]

ISBN 10: 0330291521 / ISBN 13: 9780330291521

Published by Picador, London, 1986

About this Item

A very good copy of the first Picador softcover printing (full number line). The text is wholly unmarked, pristine, and the binding is bright and fresh in appearance, with only faint creaing to the spine. A sharp copy.

Seller Inventory # 020065

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Engineer of Human Souls
• Publisher: Picador, London
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330291521
• ISBN 13: 9780330291521
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The Engineer of Human Souls is a labyrinthine comic novel that investigates the journey and plight of novelist Danny Smiricky, a Czech immigrant to Canada. As the novel begins, he is a professor of American literature at a college in Toronto. Out of touch with his young students, and hounded by the Czech secret police, Danny is let loose to roam between past and present, adopting whatever identity that he chooses or has been imposed upon him by History.

As adventuresome, episodic, bawdy, comic, and literary as any novel written in the past twenty-five years, The Engineer of Human Souls is worthy of the subtitle Skvorecky gave it: "An Entertainment on the Old Themes of Life, Women, Fate, Dreams, The Working Class, Secret Agents,
Love and Death."

About the Author

Josef Skvorecky is the author of "The Cowards," "The Bass Saxophone," "The Engineer of Human Souls," and "Dvorak in Love," among other works. He is the winner of Canada's Governor General's Award. He and his wife, Zdena, divide their time between Toronto and Venice, Florida.