Josef Skvorecky, a dissident writer who fled the former Czechoslovakia following the invasion of Soviet troops and made his way to Canada, has died after a battle with cancer, confirms his widow, actress/writer Zdena Salivarova.
University of Toronto English professor Sam Z. Solecki, who worked with Skvorecky and wrote a 1988 book about him, says the author had been battling cancer and his health had seriously deteriorated recently.
â??He (Skvorecky) was very hard-working, a very warm and generous person to everyone he worked with. Writing came very naturally to him, storytelling came very naturally to him,â? recalled close friend Paul Wilson, who translated many of Skvoreckyâ??s works into English from Czech.
Read Full Article »
