A novel inspired by the author’s stays in China
Literary fiction
The same decisive expression “hours of lead” will determine the fate of several families of different generations from various European countries and backgrounds. A Czech business man, his wife and teenage daughter, a Russian diplomat, a French writer, a student of calligraphy, a chef and many other protagonists with their family traumas, midlife crisis, burnouts and puberty. Pilgrims and travelers who have gone to China to sort out their lives, yet their world continues falling apart. They loose something irreversibly and they can not understand what it is. Looking for a solid point in their past life, yet unable to know what to recall.
As in their private stories, there is a dramatic break, something essential is coming undone and changing the fate of us all. The old world of Europe is over and no one understands what is in store. As every character in the novel experiences their marginal situaltion as an existential and personal nemesis, we also live the “leaden hour” toghether. People are retreating themselves and the era of resigned apathy and demoralization begins, the era of everyday gray totalitarian consumerism. Yet there is still a chance to act. You just need to read and follow the signs.
Radka Denemarková (1968) is a novelist, screenwriter, translator and dramaturge. She translates from German, in particular plays and the work of Herta Müller. She is one of the most widely translated contemporary Czech authors and has been awarded the Magnesia Litera four times; for prose, Peníze od Hitlera (Money from Hitler), journalism, Smrt, nebudeš se báti aneb Příběh Petra Lébla (Thou Shalt Not Fear Death: The Story of Petr Lébl) and for translation, Rozhoupaný dech (The Hunger Angel). In addition to that, her novel Hodiny z olova (Hours of Lead) won the 2019 Magnesia Litera – Book of the Year award. In 2022, Radka Denemarková and her translator Eva Profousová won the (literary and translation) Brücke Berlin Preis for the novel Hodiny z olova (Hours of Lead) and its German translation published by Hoffmann und Campe Verlag.