` As I crammed the cream horn voraciously into my mouth, at once I heard Francin`s voice saying that no decent woman would eat a cream puff like that` In a quiet town where not much happens, Maryska, the flamboyant brewer`s wife, stands out. She cuts her skirt short so that she can ride her bicycle, her golden hair flying out behind her. She butchers pigs. She drinks & eats with relish. & when the garrulous ranconteur Uncle Pepin comes to visit the locals are scandalized even further, in Bohumil Hrabal`s affecting, exuberant portrayal of a small central European community between the wars. ` One of the greatest European prose writers` Philip Roth` Hrabal combines good humour & hilarity with tenderness` Observer