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The Good Soldier Švejk, Jaroslav Hasek's four-volume novel, written in the early 1920's, is
the best Czech book of the century,
according to a poll published in the weekly magazine Týden [Week].

Second place in the survey of 25 literary critics and academicians was taken by Bohumil Hrabal's novella Too Loud a Solitude from 1976.

 Both of the Čapek brothers had one book in the top 10. Karel's 1934 Ordinary Life came in seventh, while Josef's Crippled Pilgrim was listed 10th.

 Contemporary Czech literature was represented by Josef Škvorecký, whose The Cowards was fourth, followed by Milan Kundera's The Joke and Ludvík Vaculík's Czech Dreambook.

Marketa Lazarová, by Vladislav Vančura, was third, while Ivan Olbracht's Golet in the Valley placed ninth.