Summary of UtzÂ
Kaspar Utz is a collector of porcelain figurines in Prague during the Cold War. Once a year, he is permitted to travel to the west to buy new pieces for his collection. Every year, he is tempted to remain in the west, but he cannot take his collection with him and thus stays in communist Czechoslovakia, a voluntary prisoner of his own collecting obsession.
Reasons to read Utz
“Utz” is a short and somewhat fragmentary novella about a compulsive art collector and the challenges he faces from the communist authorities of his home country. Bruce Chatwin was a British travel writer and novelist. In 1982, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel “On the Black Hill”. In 2008, The Times ranked Bruce Chatwin on their list of “50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945.” His novel “Utz” was shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize.
Setting: Prague (Czech Republic)
Original title: Utz
Year of publication: 1988
Nr of pages: 160
