Ondřej Štindl’s best novel to date takes place in Prague during the pandemic and was nominated for the 2023 EU Prize for Literature.

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

An aging writer and translator, the novel’s protagonist Kryštof abruptly finds himself at a crossroads when he meets the young leftist intellectual Kristýna, and not long afterwards Kamil, a guru with a strange connection to Kryštof’s deceased sister. The emerging pandemic is changing life as he knows it, making the possibility of the world’s end more real than ever—in fact, Kryštof might be headed towards a “personal apocalypse”, plagued by melancholy, the grotesque, intrusive memories and dark forebodings. He becomes a hesitant actor in what is either a story of great revelation or a cruel cosmic joke. Or a love story.

Ondřej Štindl (1966) is a film and music critic, writer, screenwriter and DJ. The film Pouta (Walking Too Fast), based on his script, premiered in 2010. In 2020 he was awarded the Ferdinand Peroutka Prize for his journalistic work. He is the author of the novels Mondschein (2012), K hranici (To the Border, 2016), Až se ti zatočí hlava (Until Your Head Starts Spinning, 2020) and Tolik popela (So Much Ash, 2022).