Banned Books series

The narrative of Banned Books is based on various plots drawn from a selection of fourteen novels banned by communist governments in the Eastern Bloc. Most of the novels deal with political issues, critical of Soviet supremacy over communist satellite countries, and sarcastically ironic of the social, economic and governmental environment in the homeland. The stories cover the most relevant themes of the 20th century, such as autocracy, invading occupation, repression, censorship of free speech, the rewriting of history, false heroes, in short, our previous complex social, cultural and political life.

Banned Books features photographs of great literary figures of the 20th century, taken from the most important novels banned by communist governments, such as The Master and Margarita by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, White Book by Czech writer Pavel Kohout, The cafe on Cemetery Street by Czech writer Ota Filip, Life and Fate by Ukrainian writer and war correspondent Vasili Grossman, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Russian writer Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Czech writer Milan Kundera, The Axe by writer and political activist Ludvík Vaculík, and The Cowards by Josef Skvorecky, co-founder of one of the most important publishing houses of Czech literature in exile, among others.

Their protagonists are portrayed in fictitious settings, along with objects and belongings that define their personalities or question an aspect of their contemporary historical environment. Banned Books is thus composed of portraits of marginal characters, historical objects, memories and life in all its magnitude, a singular journey that crosses the 20th century to take a close look at the most vibrant aspects of subversive critical thought.