A balanced collection of short stories, exploring from several perspectives what it means to be a middle-aged woman today.

Prose, Short stories

Magdalena Platzová has written several books to date, including novels and short story collections. In her latest collection of short fiction, she explores the theme of women coping with midlife. Although each story focuses on something different and introduces new characters and situations, the reader soon begins to sense they form a single, coherent portrait of a woman during a particular stage in her life. The situations of the characters are revealed through confrontations with those around them: men and women, the elderly, children, and even the dead. What emerges from these encounters above all is the desire for freedom. The women are either returning or settling somewhere new, searching for a place of their own, where they might have a life beyond the needs and expectations of society. The stories create a unique space of experience, approaching an almost auto-fictional representation of what it means to be a middle-aged woman today.

Magdaléna Platzová (1972) graduated in philosophy before working as a journalist and editor (Literární noviny, Respekt). She made her literary debut in 2003 and has since published nine books, including the novels Aaron’s Leap (2006), The Anarchist (2014), and Life after Kafka (2022), which was nominated for the Magnesia Litera Award. She contributes regularly to Czech Radio and the monthly magazine Host. Her prose has been translated into more than ten languages.