Special edition containing a fully revised version of Winternerg’s Last Journey [Jantar 2024] along with a photo-essay by the author featuring his own photos of the places visited by the two main characters, Winterberg and Kraus. A novel from multi-award winning author Jaroslav Rudiš, who takes the reader on a once-in-a-lifetime trip across Europe.
When nurse Jan Kraus is charged with the care of 99-year-old Wenzel Winterberg, a Sudetenland German expelled from his Bohemian homeland after the Second World War, he believes that their time together is limited. But a casual remark from Kraus one night – ‘it’s interesting; your name is Winterberg, and I came from Winterberg, from Vimperk in Bohemia, which used to be called Winterberg’ – sparks a new life in the old man, who becomes obsessed with uncovering the fate of his lost love, Lenka Morgenstern. Kraus is then dragged along by Winterberg on a winding train journey from Berlin to Sarajevo, all the while dealing with Winterberg’s regular ‘historical fits’. Their only guide is Winterberg’s Baedeker for Austria-Hungary from 1913 – the last edition ever issued.
Jaroslav Rudiš, born in Turnov, Czechoslovakia, in 1972, is a prize-winning author, playwright and dramatist. Winterberg’s Last Journey is his first book to be originally written in German. In 2021, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in recognition of his cultural contribution to German-Czech relations, with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier praising Winterberg’s Last Journey in particular as ‘a haunting exploration of history in the area where two World Wars began’.
Rudiš studied German and history and previously worked as a teacher and journalist. His most recent books include the 2021 DER SPIEGEL bestseller Gebrauchtsanweisung fürs Zugreisen (‘A User’s Guide to Train Travel’) and the 2020 graphic novel Nachtgestalten (‘Creatures of the Night’) with Austrian illustrator Nicolas Mahler. Other works also include the cult graphic novel and animated film Alois Nebel (with illustrator Jaromír 99).