The murder of old Varan

- Murder in the Intercontinental Hotel (1989, Mladá fronta) - The title of the book suggests detective motifs, but when we open it, we unexpectedly discover long and interesting poems. It is a short book, and Ajvaz's literary focus begins to take shape here. We find fantastical beings set in the real world of Prague and Central Bohemia. A tiger runs across Wenceslas Square, and if we walk around Malá Strana, we end up in Nepal. However, in the book, Ajvaz doesn't limit himself to merely teasing the reader's imagination but also carefully weaves his own philosophical views into the poems. Another of Ajvaz's main characteristics, which we also find in Murder in the Intercontinental Hotel, is his masterful narrative skill. He is able to incorporate fantastical beings into real-world settings in such a way that they seem ordinary, even completely commonplace to the reader. As if they had always been there. The book consists of several dozen poems of varying lengths, but none exceeding two pages, which are each about something different, yet they are somehow strangely connected and linked. Perhaps by some magical thread, opening a door to another world, into which the reader gazes from cold reality. But this door must never open too wide. Murder is, after all, a debut, and therefore something is still missing in this work, and a certain indecisiveness can be felt as Ajvaz seeks his place in literature. - The Return of the Old Komodo Dragon (1991, Mladá fronta) - Here, Ajvaz once again sets his carousel of imagination in motion and brings together the short stories that make up the book. In the book, Ajvaz shows ordinary city people in ordinary situations, but he makes them extraordinary precisely by implanting a kind of mythical quality. He sees a deeper and mysterious meaning in the most ordinary things and develops this to perfection. However, besides the mythical and the real, Ajvaz also inserts a certain amount of playfulness, wit, and charm into his books, making the whole thing feel somewhat light-hearted. Ajvaz's heroes glide through situations, often not even experiencing them themselves, but merely contemplating what might happen or listening to the experiences of others.