Divine Interventions? Harry Mulisch's De ontdekking van de hemel in Czech

Harry Mulisch's magnum opus, De ontdekking van de hemel (The discovery of heaven), was published in Czech in 2010, eighteen years after the original. This chapter analyses the complex process of the translation's coming-into-being. Objevení nebe was published by the renowned publishing house Odeon in Prague, which commissioned the leading Dutch–Czech translator Veronika ter Harmsel Havlíková for the translation. It is the fifth book from Mulisch's oeuvre to be published in Czech. Interviews with the translator and the editor-in-chief indicate that Objevení nebe was selected for translation mainly due to its prestige. This was also conveyed to the Czech readers: it was published in the Světová knihovna (World Library) series alongside works by Haruki Murakami and Ian McEwan. In addition, the novel had seen success in Germany, which is often an important consideration for Czech publishers when acquiring translation rights for a Dutch-language book. The Czech edition enjoyed a relatively enthusiastic reception and sold well. This chapter focuses on the Czech translator and publisher, highlighting prestige as a motivating factor in the translation's life cycle. To contextualise this process, it also provides a brief history of Dutch–Czech literary transfer from the post-war period to the present.