War with the Newts

This book should be more popular. It's wonderful! It is an account of semi-intelligent newts trained to do humankind's bidding, but eventually taking over the world. Along the way it satirises all the main political movements of the first half of the C20th (Capek was a friend of the Czech PM, Tomas Masaryk. If ever there was a nation beleagured by political movements, his was). It's blisteringly funny and wonderfully surreal. I especially liked the bit about the 'Czech for Newts' phrase book.

Please buy this book. You'll not be disappointed. Plus, it's from a small publisher who could probably use the money.

Ah...this site is addictive. Now I'm going to have to go off and give a rave review to the dreadfully overlooked Stanislaw Lem.

I totally agree with you about Capek, and about Lem. Both have such a deep insight into real life and artfully succeed to weave it into a "sci-fi" plot, seasoned with great sense of humor. Probably it has something to do with both of them being great writers but locked in a communist surroundings. Both were and are widely recognized in East european countries, and rightfully should be much more known in "the West". Moreover, Lem's sci-fi is fun even without digging into deeper meanings. His inventions are incredible considering the level of technical development at the time he wrote them. All you can find translation is highly recommended (regretfully, just a part of the original abundance).