War with the Newts

One of the great, and most humorous, anti-utopian satires of the twentieth century, an inspiration to writers from Orwell to Vonnegut, at last in a modern translation. Man discovers a species of giant, intelligent newts and learns to exploit them so successfully that the newts gain skills and arms enough to challenge man's place at the top of the animal kingdom. Along the way, Karel apek satirizes science, runaway capitalism, fascism, journalism, militarism, even Hollywood.

"A sendup of multiple early-20th century isms ... [apek's] cosmopolitanism vents itself impishly in "War with the Newts," whose text bristles with puns, pseudo-erudite footnotes, and international foolery."
Daniel Drabelle, Washington Post Book World

"A bracing parody of totalitarianism and technological overkill, one of the most amusing and provocative books in its genre."
Bruce Allen, Philadelphia Inquirer

"apek had in mind the totalitarian deluge that [in 1938] began to engulf Europe. But his satire aims, above all, at human blindness and greed. The enemy is always within, he reminds us."
Heda Kovaly, New York Times Book Review

"The new translation ... is wonderfully smooth; indeed, it reads almost better than the Czech original."
Times Literary Supplement

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