How many people can a person love, asks Andrea, who is stuck between two men.

Literary fiction  |  English sample translation available

Zuzana Kultánová, the author of the award-winning historical novel Augustin Zimmermann (2016), now wrote a story about a contemporary young woman who grew up in the Czech Republic in the 1990s, after the Velvet Revolution and the return to democracy. First a poor student, then a desirable lover and finally a doubting wife and mother who longs for an “ordinary life”, which she is unable to build. She underestimates herself and feels that she doesn’t deserve it. Andrea is constantly in dialogue with her loved ones, with a world torn apart by crisis and with herself. She is both critical and self-critical. With brutal sincerity, she admits to her faults and failures and recounts the humiliating life of her father, a gastarbeiter and gambler. She is also not afraid to reveal the dark side of motherhood.

Zuzana Kultánová (1986) studied Czech language and literature at the University of Ostrava before becoming editor-in-chief of the journal Opičí revue. For her debut book Augustin Zimmermann (2016) she was nominated for the 2017 Magnesia Litera Award for Discovery of the Year and won the 2017 Jiří Orten Award. She works as a teacher and book editor. The Book You Sing Like You’re Crying (2022) is her second novel.