Windmills - book and audiobook 

The mini stories and short musings in Windmills were published alongside the book Song as part of a project named "Double Poetry". This name expresses the meaning of both of the books; if Song is made up of spiritual poetry, then Windmills is full of the earthly business. Together, they create the vertical and horizontal lines of life, two dimensions that cannot be separated from one another. 

The publication also includes a CD with an audio recording of Windmills, read by Viktor Preiss and Lukáš Hlavica. These two excellent actors added a lot of beauty to the recording with their irreplaceable voices. Lukáš Hlavica also directed the recording, and all music was composed by Hubert Bittman. Both had previously worked on the Biblical poetry project with Daniel Raus.  

The original illustrations from 1982 done by Jaro Beliš were chosen for the publication of Windmills. Back in the day, only two hand written books of the first version of these poems existed. Then the poems started circulating around as samizdats (self-published works that were banned by the communist state). It wasn't until 1992 that the poems were compiled into a small book with the original watercolor illustrations, with a couple new additions. The visual concept of the book was designed by Julo Nagy. 

Even though the book quickly sold out, there were no subsequent editions printed in the following twenty-six years. The new Windmills also contain children's hand drawn pictures of windmills, this time in color, which were once upon a time drawn by the author's daughter Maruška, who even had her own funny copyright in the original book. The book design of this publication was done by Svetlana Číčelová. 

Windmills is full of humor, nostalgia and unbreakable optimism, which are all embodied by the artistic concept of the book, as well as the audio recording. The CD also includes a bonus track titled Midnight Blues, sung by Noemi Krieglerová, accompanied by the voice of Lukáš Hlavica.

Publisher: Porta libri

  Trailer: video in English and facebook (in Czech)

  Book launch at Nová Cvernovka

  To order the book in the Czech Republic -  Návrat

  To order the book in Slovakia - Porta Libri

  Sample (English subtitles) - an introduction to Windmills by Viktor Preiss. In Czech, it says:
 
ABOUT THE LENGTH OF LIFE
 
When I was small, I thought
I’d live a thousand years
because a thousand was
the biggest number I knew.
I wasn’t selfish, so I figured that
everyone I loved would live
a thousand years too.
Today, a thousand years
isn’t nearly enough
as even eternity
feels too short.