Story reveals history of Korean ambassador's residence in Prague

By Kim Se-jeong

The Czech embassy is giving “Villa in Troja,” a collection of short stories compiled by the current ambassador Jaroslav Olsa, Jr., to its friends in Seoul during the festive period, and there is an additional tale behind the title.

“The story (Villa in Troja) is set in a villa in Prague’s posh residential quarter named Troja, where the family of the writer used to live during World War II,” Olsa told the Korea Times. He chose the title himself but Ivan Klima is the author.

The villa is now used as Korean ambassador’s residence.

“Later on, the villa became a private residence of the last Czechoslovak communist president Gustav Husak. After the end of the communist rule, it was selected by the Korean government as the residence of the ambassador.”

The story set in Czechoslovakia during the Second World War, gives a glimpse into the lives of Jews in hiding from the Nazis through the eyes of a little boy.

Besides Klima, the book introduces four writers, including Jan Neruda and Karel Capek, two of the most well-known Czech authors, Jaroslav Hasek and Jakub Arbes.

The book, given to 500 friends and collaborators of the embass in Korea, was a special project for the embassy, and it took almost one year to make.

“We have collected Czech short stories that have been translated into Korean, but could not have made into individual books,” the ambassador said.

Many Czech short stories have been translated into Korean in recent years, and that’s mainly the work of the book-loving Olsa.

As a young adult, he founded IKARIE, the first Czech science fiction magazine. After joining the Czech foreign service, he retained his interest in science fiction and books in general.

In Seoul, he has worked closely with publishers to make anthology “Praha,” “A Collection of Classical Czech short stories,” “Tales of the Little Quarters” and “Behave Like a Decent Corpse.”