Karel Čapek, the most important czech writer (writing in the czech language) of the first half of the 20th Century, author of the famous War With the Newts, wrote, in this collection of short stories, one of the funniest and most serious books I ever read. Originaly published postumously in czech in 1945 with the title Kniha Apokryfu, this book consists in twenty nine short stories, written between the two world wars, in which the author tries to see the ''other side'' of well known historical or mythical episodes: the inner workings of the court that condemned Prometheus, the small talk of an elderly stone age couple complaining about the youth, the chat of a group of former Cesar's legionaries, around a bottle of wine, years after the end of Galia's campaign, the indignation of a Jerusalem's baker with Jesus' miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, and numerous other stories about biblical, literary, and historical episodes. Not all of the stories are funny but nearly all of them are brilliant and with wonderful punch lines. A book I very much enjoyed reading and will likely return to from time to time. ( )