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Pérák

Original title: Pérák
Publisher: Akropolis, Praha, 2016
2008
ISBN: 978-80-7304-183-0
Illustrations: Finito
118 pages
Historical Fiction

Rights sold:

German

A satirical World War II action novel dedicated to a forgotten Superhero of Central Europe

There is war and the Nazi rulers in Prague are very worried: a fighter with seemingly supernatural powers moves through the city, instilling fear in the occupiers. The athletic superhero, whispered about on street corners, can leap unusually far and high. He uses his skills to sabotage the German war economy. He is also involved in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler’s man in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The name of the mysterious hero is Frank Pérák – the Springheeled Jack of Prague. In the novel, he falls in love with the beautiful resistance fighter Jitka, who fights intrepidly at his side against the occupiers. At the same time he attempts to solve the riddle of his own identity. So who is Pérák, the superhero from Prague? The answer offered by Petr Stančík is beyond imagination.

Peter Stančík embellished the supernatural ability of Pérák to crush enemies and has created a story so sophisticated, that Superman and Batman pale in comparison.
Martin Ťopek, nekultura.cz
Stančík relates Pérák in a Tarantino-esque, mischievous, refreshingly disrespectful manner, making the Pérák myth a mixture of pulp fiction and historical essay writing. The book is beautifully illustrated (with contemporary Pérák comics) and garnished with annotations. This novel, which reimagines the Flak gun as a "steel penis in a stolid defensive posture" or reinvents Göring's Carinhall as a completely edible gluttonous dystopia, brings with it a rare humour which Czechs have been largely lacking when dealing with these traumatic topics.
Marc Reichwein, Die Welt
This book is fabulous pulp-surreal fiction, very amusing to read.
Neues Deutschland
The author and the publisher have succeeded in creating a small opus that appeals to a diverse target audience: comics fans and cultural scientists, science fiction enthusiasts and (hobby) historians, or simply people who enjoy multi-layered and unusual literary works. The story is accompanied by a large quantity of background material (photos, posters, graphics), demonstrating how lifelike the story of a defender can be.
osTraum

Other books by Petr Stančík

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2022
Age: 6+, Children's Literature
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Series

Part three
2019
Age: 12+, Children's Literature
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2018
Crime Fiction, Modern Fiction
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2018
Age: 6+, Children's Literature
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Series

Part two
2018
Age: 9+, Children's Literature
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Series

Part one
2017
Age: 9+, Children's Literature
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2016
Historical Fiction
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2014
Crime Fiction, Historical Fiction