This daring novel explores the Central European consciousness and the question of why contemporary Europeans, with all their achievements, feel so hopeless.
Literary fiction | English sample translation available
Northern Renaissance follows the fates of two generations of a family living in Germany and the Czech Republic. Zábranský uses this topic as a backdrop against which to examine the sociocultural relationship between the two countries and, more broadly, the current prevailing attitude towards life in Central Europe. This is a novel about Europe today, the migrant crisis and cultures growing disparate: younger and older. It is a novel about the deep, often forgotten, division of Europe, and the continents’ physical split into the north and the south by the Alps. Northern Renaissance examines barriers in many forms, in an attempt to answer the question of how far unified Europe has come and what will happen next. What is the European vision? What is behind Brexit and the rising populism in many European countries? As a continent, are we on our way to the summit, on the summit, or already beyond?
David Zábranský (1977) is a prose writer, playwright and columnist, who is known for his, often, controversial and provocative opinions. He graduated in media studies and law and has worked in non-profit and non-governmental organizations. Zábranský has written several successful novels, which have been published in Spanish and Hungarian. His debut, Slabost pro každou jinou pláž (A Weakness for Every Other Beach, 2006), won the Magnesia Litera Award for Discovery of the Year and Martin Juhás čili Československo (Martin Juhás or Czechoslovakia, 2015) was shortlisted for the Magnesia Litera Award in the Book of the Year category. The play, Herec a truhlář Majer mluví o stavu své domoviny (Actor and Carpenter Majer Talks about the State of His Homeland, 2016), about the Czech national identity sparked a media debate and was published in German in 2018 by the Berlin-based Neofelis in their anthology of modern Czech drama.