Ludvík Němec

Indulgences for the Next Night

Odpustky pro příští noc Odpustky pro příští noc
Odpustky pro příští noc
Druhé město, 2015, 208 pp
9788072273669
Literary fiction, Short stories

Ludvík Němec’s writing is characterised by its refined, polished style. The short stories in Indulgences for the Next Night are a serious and intimate look at men and women: When they meet, how many people really meet? How many beings are with us during our most private moments, are they always alive and are they necessarily human? The characters of Němec’s stories seek answers on the boundary between real and imagined worlds. They are looking for forgiveness, whether in the form of new love, new life, or at least an understanding of their current existence. “The short stories often revolve around relationships, sex and romantic betrayal. In the first, a dead lover returns at Christmas to help the ageing main character remember that the end of their relationship wasn’t as clear as he had believed for years. The unreliability of memory is a brilliant theme,” writes Klára Kolářová in the Právo newspaper. For his previous collection of short stories, Láska na cizím hrobě (Love on a Stranger’s Grave), Němec was nominated for a Magnesia Litera award. His latest collection has already been nominated for the Josef Škvorecký Award and we expect more nominations in 2016.

Praise

Indulgences for the Next Night contains texts which combine the playfulness of postmodernism with a depth of meaning. ”

Kryštof Špidla, Host

“[Indulgences for the Next Night] offers masterfully narrated stories full of ideas and storytelling inventiveness, reading it reminds us of times when writing was done ‘by hand’, slowly and carefully.”

Petr A. Bílek, Respekt

Odpustky pro příští noc
Druhé město, 2015, 208 pp
9788072273669