When:  June, 19 2025 at 5 p.m.

Where: Embassy of the Czech Republic in Copenhagen, Ryvangs Allé 14, 2100 København 

Who: Magdaléna Platzová (writer) 

Moderator: Peter Bugge, Aarhus University (translator, historian)

Language: Reading in Danish, discussion in English  

Admission: Free, prior to previous registration: https://bit.ly/magdalena-platzova-cph-2025     

About the event:

Czech writer Magdaléna Platzová visits Copenhagen to mark the publishing of her acclaimed novel Život po Kafkovi (Life after Kafka) in Danish as Livet efter Kafka. The novel has been translated into several languages, including English, German, and Italian, and has had excellent reviews.

The novel investigates the life of Franz Kafka’s fiancée Felice Bauer after her break with Kafka. Little was known about her life, except that Felice emigrated to the USA with her husband and children before the Second World War, and that she died there. While in New York in 2010, the author managed to get in touch with Felice’s descendants and even met her son. These encounters resulted in a novel that is not just about Felice, but also about other people who were close to Kafka and those fates were tied to interwar Europe and its ruins, such as Grete Bloch, Max Brod or Salman Schocken.

Magdaléna Platzová will discuss the novel with her translator, addressing questions of genre, including the relationship between biography and fiction in the novel, narrative strategies, gender issues, and more.

For more information, including on where to buy the book, please, see here.