How I Came to Know Fish

Ota Pavel

Abruptly moving, apparently artless, and yet passionate and honest, How I Came to Know Fish is an awesome series of stories…. This is the real thing.

Philadelphia Inquirer

How I Came to Know Fish

Fiction by Ota Pavel

Unassuming and unforgettable, the stories of How I Came to Know Fish memorialize Ota Pavel’s childhood in Czechoslovakia––his beloved family, the flash of fish in clear streams, and the annihilation of this world by the Nazis. His father (a wildly canny fisherman) first has his fish pond confiscated (“How can a Jew breed carp?”) and then, with his two older sons, is sent to a concentration camp. Too young to work in the camps, Ota remains with his gentile mother. Fish save them from starving, as he takes to poaching carp reserved for the Wehrmacht. These stories, some of which originally appeared in a Czech version of Field and Stream, are profoundly poignant and have long been treasured by the Czechoslovakians.

Paperback(published May, 01 1991)

ISBN
9780811211659
Portrait of Ota Pavel

Ota Pavel

20th Century Czech Writer

Abruptly moving, apparently artless, and yet passionate and honest, How I Came to Know Fish is an awesome series of stories…. This is the real thing.

Philadelphia Inquirer