Vratislav Kadlec’s prose debut offers seventeen short stories which in many ways are reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges.

Literary fiction, Short stories  |  English sample translation available

A man whose name is stolen by a magpie, faces disappearing into the mist, a mysterious body behind a bathroom wall and a broken coffee machine causing a catastrophe at sea – but also the inability to convey your feelings to your loved ones, childhood injustices eating away under the skin, separations hanging like a heavy cloud over summer days, a fear of open doors, and groping for an authenticity which is slipping through your fingers. Beech leaves, animal cemeteries and stars at the end of the world.

Each story explores different types of boundaries, indistinct thresholds both internal and external, as well as milestones in life from which there is no coming back. The characters often find themselves in unhappy situations, though there is still some humour in the narration and we occasionally sense the narrator’s wry smile behind some of the text.

Vratislav Kadlec (1981) is a writer and translator. He was editor-in-chief of the Czech literary monthly PLAV and founder of the theatre group Prvobytně pospolná společnost (Primitive communal society). He lives in Prague and is a translator of fiction, in particular for children and young adults. Hranice lesa (The Forest Boundary, 2019) is his short-story debut.