Novelistic truth about blind faith.

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

The so-called Kuřim Case, one of the most complicated criminal cases in modern Czech history, was uncovered by chance in May 2007 after footage of the abuse of a young boy was caught by a neighbour trying to set up a video baby monitor. There are still many unanswered questions concerning those convicted and the guilty parties in this case. However, Adéla Knapová does not approach it as a detective/researcher – instead she focuses on the moment before these events began, i.e. on the question of what led up to them, what triggered them and what scope there is in today’s world for good, bad and the opposition between them.

Adéla Knapová (1976) is a writer and journalist. Graduate of Charles University in Prague. Since the age of eighteen she has worked as a journalist and since 2009 she has been one of the core writers for the Reflex magazine; she has won several prizes for her journalism. Her first novel Nezvaní (The Uninvited) was published in 2003. In 2016 the publishers Fra brought out her novella Nemožnost nuly (The Impossibility of Zero), which immediately after publication was listed by Czech Radio as one of the best Czech and international books of the year; last year the same publisher brought out her novel Slabikář (Primer). She has also written short stories (e.g. for the magazine Weles and for Czech Radio Two). She lives alternately in South Moravia and North Greece.