The Maimed – Hermann Ungar
The Maimed by Hermann Ungar / ISBN 9788086264134 / 220-page paperback with flaps from Twisted Spoon Press (in their old deluxe style with nice textured cover)
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“The Maimed takes us to a bizarre interwar Prague populated by petty bureaucrats who are all unraveling inside.” — The Prague Post
“David Lynch and Patrick McCabe fans will fall right into this marvelously dark and psychotically twisted tale.” — The New Pages
“The Maimed is a great work. Subtly written, well-constructed. Kudos to Kevin Blahut for an excellent translation.” — Christopher Lord
The Maimed is set in Prague and relates the story of a highly neurotic, socially inept bank clerk who is eventually forced to have sexual relations with his widowed landlady. At the same time he must witness the steady physical and mental deterioration of his lifelong friend who is suffering from an unnamed disease. Part psychological farce, Ungar tells a dark, ironic tale of chaos overtaking one’s meticulously ordered life. Having died young, Ungar wrote only two novels, in addition to a handful of plays and short stories; this is the first time his work has appeared in English.
Hermann Ungar (1893-1929) was born to a prominent Jewish family in Boskovice, Moravia and studied at university in Berlin and Prague, where he later lived. He was wounded is the First World War and was awarded the Silver Medal of Valor. In 1920, after a stint as a dramaturge and actor at the Municipal Theatre in Cheb, he entered the Czechoslovak foreign service, becoming trade attach at the Czechoslovak embassy in Berlin. His first book, a volume of short stories that was highly praised by Thomas Mann, was published the same year. Called back to Prague in 1928, Ungar resigned from the service in 1929, several weeks before his death of acute appendicitis.
