Jachym Topol is the leading Czech author of his generation. Famous in his youth as an underground poet and songwriter, since the Velvet Revolution he has written the books that have most successfully and imaginatively captured the dislocation brought about by the fall of communism. His novels include Gargling with Tar, which was published by Portobello in 2011, The Devil's Workshop (Portobello 2013), which won the 2013 English PEN Award for Writing in Translation, and Nightworks (Portobello 2014).

http://www.englishpen.org/english-pen-awards-for-writing-in-translation-2013-announced/

MAREK TOMIN was born in Prague and grew up in England, where his family found asylum after being exiled by the Communist regime in 1980. His translations include Glorious Nemesis by Ladislav Klíma and Emil Hakl's Of Kids and Parents. He lives in Prague and London.