Gerald Turner has been translating Czech literature since the late 1970s. During the 1980s he translated leading Czech authors, including Václav Havel, Ludvík Vaculík, Milan Šimečka, and Ivan Klíma, under the pen-name of A. G. Brain. From 1985 to 1990 he was sole translator for the Documentation Centre for the Promotion of Independent Czechoslovak Literature based at Scheinfeld, Bavaria. His published translations include novels, short stories, and plays. In recent years his translations of works on theology have been favourably received, particularly in the United States, where his translation of Tomáš Halík’s Patience with God was awarded the best theological book prize for 2009-10. He was private translator to Václav Havel (2004-2011).