On the destructive impact of parental divorce on children and the war children wage against their parents

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

Petra Hůlová’s new novel examines the small-scale, private history of a family. Ten-year-old Miky is in the shared custody of his parents, which he detests, just as he hates his new siblings and his stepmother, who has “stolen” his dad. Miky lives in a world of his own, where reality intermingles with the world of mobile-phone and computer games. Misunderstandings, grief and pain lead to anger and revolt. Hůlová considers the rights of parents with regard to their children and the rights of children at a time when the family is breaking down and being reconfigured. She shows how thin the line is between an unruly brat and an unfortunate boy being dragged into the arguments of his guardians.

Petra Hůlová (1979) is a fiction writer and the recipient of several literary awards, including Czechia’s highest literary recognitions – the Magnesia Litera Award, the Josef Škvorecký Award and the Jiří Orten Award. She studied languages, culture, and anthropology at universities in Prague, Ulan Bator and New York, and was a Fulbright scholar in the USA. Her first novel, Paměť mojí babičce (All This Belongs to Me, 2002), won the Magnesia Litera Award for Discovery of the Year. The English translation by Alex Zucker won the ALTA National Translation Award. Her fourth novel, Umělohmotný třípokoj (2006), won the Jiří Orten Prize for the best work of prose or poetry by an author under thirty; Alex Zucker’s English Translation won the PEN Translates Award. In total, her novels and two plays of hers have been translated into more than ten languages. Nejvyšší karta (Trump Card, 2023), an extraordinary novel about culture wars in our everyday life, is her latest novel. She lives in Prague.