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

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.

Praise:

“The leitmotif of Cracks is a mysterious object in the form of a white levitating sphere, whose sudden and inexplicable appearance brings disquiet to a weary human society on Earth, blighted by climate change, and with it a whole series of burning questions to which no-one can find a plausible answer”

—iLiteratura

“Klára Vlasáková presents an image of a world in crisis which is not futuristic – in fact most readers will recognize it: it is a world which has lost the ability to govern and control its own destiny.”

—Aktuálně

About the author:

Klára Vlasáková (1990) is a screenwriter and journalist who writes screenplays for film, comics as well as radio plays. She works regularly with several media organizations – Czech Television, Czech Radio and the cultural section of the newspaper Právo. Her debut novel Praskliny (Cracks) was published in 2020.