Petra Dvořáková

The Net

Sítě; Příběhy (ne)sebevědomí Sítě; Příběhy (ne)sebevědomí
Sítě; Příběhy (ne)sebevědomí
Host, 2016, 320 pp
9788074916595
Foreign rights:
Dana Blatná Literary Agency
http://www.dbagency.cz
blatna@dbagency.cz
Read an excerpt:
English
Goodreads rating
80.2% (Rated by 456 users)
Prose  |  English sample translation available

Three stories about how low self-esteem affects our lives.

You determine the extent of the threat you’re under – it all depends on how much you believe in yourself. Wherever there’s someone with low self-esteem, there’s a manipulator close at hand, wondering how he can take advantage at the other’s expense.

Kristýna and her young son have at last settled down in a relationship, with wealthy, charismatic Jáchym. The only problem is, Kristýna ‘doesn’t believe in herself much’. She starts to go to a psychotherapist, and these visits soon lead her to a dramatic realization.

While she is expecting her fourth child, Karolína finally owns up to the fact that she is repeating her mother’s hated mistakes. Her desire to break free of the influence of her religious fanatic husband, who rejects contraception out of hand, prompts her to approach the elderly Father Ambrož. But will she succeed in breaking out of the vicious circle?

If her breasts were just a little bit bigger, her life would be so much better. Although Naďa is a nurse and frequently encounters true suffering and death, this does nothing to lessen her desire for personal perfection. Gradually she becomes a trusted but cynical businesswoman. Behind the narrative is the controversial theme of trade with banked umbilical cord blood.

It doesn’t matter whether you are inside or outside the net – the angling has begun!

Praise

“…here we have a likeable book that extends beyond art”


— Kryštof Špidla, Host

About the author

Petra Dvořáková (b. 1977) is a novelist and screenwriter. She came to public attention with her first book, a series of interviews entitled Proměněné sny (Transformed Dreams), for which she won the Magnesia Litera prize for a work of journalism in 2007. Two years later she published her second book Já jsem hlad (I Am Hunger), which is about a struggle with anorexia nervosa. In 2013 she published Julie mezi slovy (Julie and Words), her first book for children, which was awarded the Golden Ribbon prize (for a work of fiction for young readers) and the Teachers’ Prize (for her contribution to encouraging reading among children); this book is being prepared in a Slovenian edition. Her latest work for children is Flouk a Lila (Flouk and Lila), from 2015. As well as writing the series Pohádky z Parku (Tales from the Park) for Czech Radio, she has written many screenplays for programmes for young viewers of Czech Television.

Sítě; Příběhy (ne)sebevědomí
Host, 2016, 320 pp
9788074916595
Foreign rights:
Dana Blatná Literary Agency
http://www.dbagency.cz
blatna@dbagency.cz
Read an excerpt:
English
Goodreads rating
80.2% (Rated by 456 users)