Biography, Children’s and Young Adult, Essay, Prose

A trip to Constance is at stake for the winner of a competition for the best project on John Hus, but Petr Mladý, grammar-school student from Tábor, still finds the task extremely arduous. He dreads his new life in the former stronghold of the Hussite revolution, to which his family was forced to move from Prague once his father, a journalist, fell from grace for some professional misconduct. But when Petr encounters among his schoolmates a very smart girl, he soon learns that history is alive and lurking behind every corner, sometimes adopting the form of magical realism. In her effort to emphasise the legacy of the reformist priest who died a martyr’s death 600 years ago, the agile author of art-based education literature relies on the adolescent readers’ desire to rise above the average. In her prose, the charismatic lyricist of medieval hymns is also pictured through quotations from his university youth, if only to prove that he, too, was a normal human being. Every historical period seeks remedies to its own problems in Master John’s legacy, but one of his creeds has steadfastly lasted through centuries, both in relation to the “Czech question” and with regard to the good name of Petr’s father: Truth prevails.