Ján Rozner

Ján Rozner (1922–2006) was a leading Slovak literary, theatre and film critic, journalist and translator from German and English. After emigrating to West Germany in 1977 for political reasons, he was gradually forgotten in his homeland until three of his books were published posthumously after 1989 to great acclaim, especially the autofictional novel Sedem dní do pohrebu (2009, Seven Days to the Funeral, available in an English translation by Julia and Peter Sherwood). Depicting the oppressive period following the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 against the backdrop of the death of the author’s first wife and preparations for her funeral, the book is a critical probing into the effects of the totalitarian regime and deprivation of freedom.