Literary fiction, Science fiction

If in the near future a new Messiah were to appear in the middle of Europe, would people accept him? And would it prove possible to establish a new religion?

It is 2096, and a state of drought has obtained for many years. The bed of the River Vltava has dried up. But hope exists thanks to a scientific project that fends off the sun’s rays in the stratosphere. Eli is born in the Prague district of Holešovice as the first rain is falling.

It is 2168, and Marek, Eli’s elder brother, is in a Greek settlement close to Mount Olympus, preaching to survivors of the worst exodus in human history. At this point, only a staunch handful believe that martyred Eli was the Messiah.

The latest novel by Czech writer and visionary Martin Vopěnka has the highest ambitions. Plausibly and with great sensitivity for the psychology of his characters, the author shows how much pain, love, hate, doubt and hope one life can bring, when its subject appears capable of emulating the role in human history played by Jesus. In the opinion of the author, although Jesus was not a miracle worker, the mere fact that his legacy has survived to the present day is a miracle in itself.

Praise

“Vopěnka has yet again produced a book that explores many pressing issues of the near future. Highly readable, beautiful and terrifying at the same time, it presents to us a future that may not be as distant as it may seem at first sight.”

—Eliška Prokopová, iLiteratura