'Our very best writer today' Milan KunderaDitie is a pint-sized hotel waiter with big dreams. Between pocketing stolen change from unsuspecting customers and reminiscing on nights spent at the local brothel, he fantasises about his immense - and imagined - riches.Then, ludicrously, Ditie's dreams start to become reality. Yet while his chaotic adventures lead him to ever more glamorous hotels, beyond the sparkling dining halls, the forces of twentieth-century European history march on. A whirlwind of comic genius, a gut-punch of narrative power, this is the story of one small man's rise and fall - or fall and rise - against the shadowy backdrop of Europe's darkest days. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ADAM THIRLWELL'An extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel' New York Times 'Hrabal bounces and floats... with a gusting humour and a hushed tenderness of detail' Julian Barnes 'A joyful, picaresque story, which begins with Baron Munchausen-like adventures and ends in tears and solitude.' James Wood