Petra Hůlová

Tajga Station

Trans. Piotr Godlewski
Stacja Tajga Stacja Tajga
Stacja Tajga
WAB, 2011, 432 pp
Language: Polish
Prose

This fifth novel by Petra Hůlová is full of adventure and suspense. Different period in times, different cultures, countries and ethics are linked with each other. Shortly after World War II a Danish amateur ethnographer travels deep into Russia and ends up in a small town in the middle of Siberia. He films and photographs the locals, who are living not very friendly side by side with local tribes. It is made him impossible to return home. Fifty years later another young Danish ethnographer travels to the same place and tries to found out what happened. Like a detective story we gradually find out the fate of his countryman who vanished such a long time ago. Next to that there are the various stories of people who are all in some way connected to this spot in Siberia and what happened there, like that of the guard on the Trans Siberian Express, or that of the wife of the Dane who disappeared.

Hůlová presents the readers a caleidoscope of stories, which are all interwoven with each other. The result is a vast picture of clashes of cultures. As usual Hůlová has a great eye for detail and masters wonderfully all the different voices of her characters. At the one hand she opens a new world to readers, but on the other hand it is all about basic human values and human behaviour.

(Literary agency Pluh)

In Czech original Torst, 2008. Josef Škvorecký Prize 2008

Information about the original Czech edition

Stanice Tajga

Other selected published translations (1)

Endstation Taiga German

Stacja Tajga
WAB, 2011, 432 pp
Language: Polish