As exhausted and stupid my end of year rant was I neglected to mention a book that amongst all others took pride on the top shelf in my noggin. It is kinda funny, how I came to pick up this sucker. Myself and James, noddling around Prague, ended up in one of the book stores, scouring for any Twisted Spoon Press titles when the assistant, observing our enthusiasm for this arena, suggested we get this. He did not say much, just thrust this book under our faces and said 'get this'. So James did. I read 2 pages back in our room and picked it up immediately on return to London town. I am happy I did.

Ouředník's 'Europeana' takes a Vonnegut-esque approach to the 20th Century (with the majority of the focus on Europe, America and Russia) as if it was a brief summary to aid aliens with regards to understanding the 20th Century and exactly went on 'down there'. Equal parts pathos, wit and seriousness - Ouředník layers fact upon fact (and corpse upon corpse) with such flair and simplicity that i could not help but be totally jealous he did this, it seemed such an obvious idea. The facts are insane! His approach is so detached that the results are often hilarious. Mammoth travesties as a result of 'progress' are shocking and yet there is no judgment passed. Merely detailing these in such a manner some have found the book too much. But for me - i loved every freaking page. I crammed this one down like a good wine. I even left it at a club one night after being thrown out (!) My pal Pia (who was also thrown out) saw how much it meant to me and blagged her way back in the club just to get this for me.

Really it's a wonderful book. I could start to give examples of the contents within but it would really spoil the ride. if yr at all tweaked by this rant just order immediately. Nice to see Czech literature is not suffering under the weight of history, this is a golden egg in recent literature and i cannot recommend this enough to all of you humans with hands and eyes.