This disturbing debut by the young screenwriter is an original analysis of a society ignoring its impending doom.

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

When the novel opens with a mysterious globe arriving to Earth from outer space, it could easily just be another sci-fi story. However, Klára Vlasáková avoids genre stereotypes and describes a society through resigned, apathetic figures who remain lifeless, becoming ever more blind and affected by the unknown sphere, the presence of which is left entirely unexplained. The gloomy but fast-paced psychological narrative could be a metaphor for a dehumanized society which has been transformed into a lifeless machine. A stylistically convincing novel which forces the reader to think.

Klára Vlasáková (1990) is a novelist, dramatist and journalist. Her first novel, Praskliny (Cracks, 2020), was nominated for the Jiří Orten Prize, awarded to authors under the age of 30. In addition to writing scripts for film – the drama Běžná selhání (Ordinary Failures) directed by Cristina Groșan premiered at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival–, television, comics and radio plays, she writes for several Czech media outlets. In December 2023, her second novel, Těla (Bodies), became the fiction book of the year in a poll by the Czech daily Deník N.