Malinka is a novel about the struggles of childhood and parenthood, loosely connected with Běsa.

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

Malinka is a pacy story that shows a crisis of human identity with uncompromising urgency; it reflects on the essence of this crisis and considers its justification. Although born on a maternity ward, officially Malinka is a foundling. She is adopted by Ina and Jaromír, who also have two biological sons; the phrase ‘not known’ appears several times in her birth certificate. Ina understands how Malinka’s complicated background is a cause of suffering to her. She wants to stand by her daughter, but often this simply doesn’t work out. Malinka is twenty-two when something unexpected happens that forces her to fill some blanks in her life and address the question of what makes a mother. Forty-year-old Alice has no need to reflect on this – clearly, she knows the answer intuitively – yet the complexities of motherhood present her with an unexpected challenge. The father of the child that links these two women is Alice’s husband Roman, who longs for a child.

Dita Táborská (1981) graduated from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. She has worked with Czech Television and Czech Radio and in the political and press department of the Israeli embassy; she joined the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2009. Since summer 2018, Táborská has been living and working in Taiwan with her family.