Literary fiction, Short stories

Ten attempts at disaster. In the case of a human, what is a critical mass?

Ten characters live apparently ordinary lives, yet each is infected with neuroses and unfulfilled desires, albeit to differing degrees. Their attempts to live their own lives fall short somehow, complicated by the efforts of others to do the same. Once the moment of critical mass is achieved, certain irreversible processes are triggered… and this represents either an end or a beginning, death or, at last, the onset of life. Maybe there’s a big bang somewhere beyond the window, and not even the universe knows how to go on. And all hell breaks loose!

Especially for readers of her own generation, Sára Vybíralová’s stylistically sophisticated stories are the epitome of a self-confident debut.

Praise

“Masterful and original storytelling, which surpasses the boundaries of contemporary Czech prose.”

— Jiří Orten Award jury

“Vybíralová, a translator from French, often chooses francophone names for her major and minor characters and also uses French settings. This adds an exotic twist to some of her texts and may suggest a certain grandeur. This also makes the problems, which the main characters — whatever their background or social status — have to deal with, seem more universal. It is very easy for the reader to identify with them; to experience their stories or at least to understand them”

— Marek Lollok, iLiteratura

About the author

Sára Vybíralová born 1986, is a teacher and translator from the French and she divides her time between Prague and Paris; she has published poems and short pieces of prose in magazines; Trigger is her first book.