Book launch event for Arnošt Lustig’s Three from Jerusalem
On Tuesday, 17 March 2026, the Moravian Library hosted the official launch of Three from Jerusalem, a collection of early short stories, essays, and reportage by Arnošt Lustig. Published by Masaryk University Press in both Czech and English editions, the book is part of a special series marking the 100th anniversary of Lustig’s birth and was released within the multi‑genre FestivAL100.
Arnošt Lustig (1926–2011) survived the horrors of the Holocaust as a young man – experiences that profoundly shaped his literary work. The short stories in this volume were written while he was working as a war correspondent during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948–1949. Alongside narratives set in Israel, the book also includes essays and reportage reflecting on the periods of the Holocaust and exile. What unites all the texts is their focus on the inner lives and emotions of ordinary people living under extreme existential pressure. Lustig portrays his characters in both critical and everyday moments, always marked by hardship. His prose is accessible and deeply humane, combining dramatic intensity with clarity and restraint, free of pathos – a style that would become characteristic of his later work. In these texts, Lustig offers empathy and timeless wisdom that remains strikingly relevant today.
