The Golden Age, a philosophical novel by Michal Ajvaz, the literary heir to masters such as Orges and Calvino, and one of the most important living writers of the Magical Realism movement, is an imaginative masterpiece. In The Golden Age, Michal Ajvaz tells the story of a European's experiences on a strange island in the Atlantic Ocean, using the idea of a "book within a book" in a very original way.

In this fantastic travelogue, to which every islander contributes and which gradually branches out and takes shape around a living book, the story of the wandering narrator and what is told in the book are constructed together. Mirrors, labyrinths, walls made of water, houses made of stone, currents flowing from the world of dreams to reality all converge in a book, in a place where the knots of life are untied and all worlds turn into an unanswered question. A different universe, a different truth is hidden under each page.

"A classic of contemporary fantasy."
Jeff Vandermeer

"Ajvaz offers a different universe, but what it really offers is a different perspective, a reinterpretation of the familiar."
M. A. Orthofer