'Folks, life is beautiful! Bring on the drinks, I'm sticking around till I'm ninety!Do you hear?'A young boy grows up in a sleepy Czech community where little changes. His raucous, mischievous Uncle Pepin came to stay with the family years ago, and never left.But the outside world is encroaching on their close-knit town - first in the shape of German occupiers, and then with the new Communist order.Elegiac and moving, Bohumil Hrabal's gem-like portrayal of the passing of an age is filled with wit, life and tenderness. 'What is unique about Hrabal is his capacity for joy' Milan Kundera'Even in a town where nothing happens, Hrabal's meticulous and exuberant fascination with the human voice insists that, as long as there's still breath in a body, life is endlessly eventful' Independent