This novel about fateful love and death casts an unflattering light on men and becomes the stage for a one-woman show. The author’s third novel has its own vocabulary and unique female vision.

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

This psychological novel builds on the strong story of a young woman and her memories about the older generations of her family, emphasizing the theme of truth. The book’s wide scope covers the situation in Kenya today, the intricate relationships between the main character, Jana, with multiple men, and the fate of her grandmother Erna and great-grandmother Rút in Terezín and Auschwitz. This portrait of a modern woman, who is marked by the death of her newborn son, is comprised of thirty-year-old Jana’s fragmented ideas, her parents, her friend Tinka, and Jana’s lovers Alek, Viktor and many others. Each of the characters is dealing with their own demons. The careful, characterising choice of language and the suggestive imagery capture the complexity of interpersonal relationships and the need to deal with the roots of one’s own lineage. Each chapter opens with a short poem, introducing the atmosphere of the following narrative. This worrying, multi-layered work culminating in a surprising denouement, is full of metaphorical and acerbic scenes. Kolaříková skilfully explores human fates and their historical, social, psychological, spiritual and physical backgrounds.

Hana Kolaříková (b. 1971) is a native of the Moravian-Silesian city of Frýdek-Místek. After studying history and museology at the Silesian University in Opava, she worked in Prague for fifteen years in culture and tourism – from being a freelancer in the arts field and cooperating with artists to selling souvenirs and artistic items and even being a member of staff at the Archaeological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. After starting her maternity leave, she became active as writer, making her debut with the historical novel, Tma před úsvitem (Dark before the Dawn), in 2011, and in 2015, she published the social novel Mušle (Shell).