The Questionnaire: Or Prayer for a Town and a Friend

Jan Chrysostom Kepka, the narrator of Jiri Grusa's internationally acclaimed novel, applies for a job and is asked to fill out a standard employment questionnaire. He takes the command "DO NOT CROSS OUT!" as an order not to omit anything and he embarks on a wildly imaginative search for his origins, the real nature of his life, his relatives, friends, loves, and fellow citizens. The novel was the winner of the 1979 Egon Hostovsky Prize for best piece of Czech fiction published abroad.