Closely watched trains
By: Bohumil Hrabal ; translated by Edith Pargeter ; with a foreword by Josef Škvorecký.
Contributors: Pargeter, Edith, 1913-1995.; Škvorecký, Josef.
Series: European classics; European classics (Evanston, Ill.)
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Evanston, Ill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 85
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945 -- Czechoslovakia -- Fiction; Czechoslovakia -- History -- 1938-1945 -- Fiction
Description: Tells the story of Milos Hrma, a young railway junior dispatcher and signalman returning to work at a minor but strategically important Czech railway station. Milos has been away for three months, recuperating from a suicide attempt, and is warmly welcomed back by Station Master Lansky and Dispatcher Hubicka. The year is 1945, the Germans have lost command of the air-space over the town, but it remains an important rail hub for them and certain key transport trains are nominated by the German high command for "close surveillance" to ensure that they are not delayed by signals failures or problems on the lines.