This pictorial and textual meditation on the meaning of time is based on the Einsteinian principle that our perception of time is relative. And yet each of us is faced with the challenge of making sense of it.

Subtitled By the Time You’ve Read This Sentence, 21 Children will Have Come into the World, this lavish paperback is not merely an encyclopaedia of data about the quantity which mysteriously gives everything on Earth a fourth dimension, including memory and the stamp of impermanence. There is astonishing ingenuity behind David Böhm’s conceptual approach to the illustrated reference book, which he has already successfully employed in his previous books exploring the functioning of the head, modern urban planning and the role of Antarctica in our planet’s ecosystem.

In Now Böhm introduces older school-age readers to the variable length of time and its influence on our inner selves, poses philosophical questions about its purpose and also teaches us to allow ourselves moments of meaningful boredom within that relativity, while time continues to flow steadily on, driven by laws it is not necessary – or perhaps even advisable – for us to know about. The pace at which the book examines its subject is no less dynamic. Fun facts in the style of Dorling Kindersley alternate with collages and comic strips; a section in the form of a diary is followed by a striking visual call to action – in part an ecological one, so that we will still have something to measure with our timepieces in the future.
Age 9+

A captivating debut novel about studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky’s novels and the search for oneself.

In the novel Jolka, the protagonist of the same name goes on a study trip to St. Petersburg to penetrate the mystery of Dostoevsky’s novels, to get to know the distinctive Russian soul and, last but not least, to escape from her own past. A graduate in Russian studies, Jana Guljuškina wrote an imaginative story set mostly between 2007 and 2008 in which narrative perspectives alternate vividly. The novel focuses mainly on the young woman’s encounter with a different culture – at first Jolka experiences misunderstanding in St. Petersburg as she does not know the language and the Russian students have a problem pronouncing her name. Over time, however, she begins to bond with both the frosty environment of St. Petersburg and some young Russians. At the same time, it turns out that more than the desire to discover a foreign country, she was driven to Russia by her bleak past, in which there are several broken relationships. This dense, somewhat melancholic novel is a mature work by a writer from whom both Czech and foreign readers can expect a lot from in the future.

In this literary science fiction novel set in the near future, an ageing narrator, with painful memories of past catastrophes, struggles to adjust to life in a new idealistic world.

This cautionary utopian novel, with an almost fairy tale structure, takes place in the late 21st century after an atomic and social apocalypse. In this future, the aim of mankind is to colonise the planets in the solar system. Humanity has found itself living in perfect harmony, unsettled only by disturbing memories from the eldest survivors. The hero of the story is an old man who seeks to help the young, but is consumed by fateful memories that prevent him from believing in the modern dream of universal wealth, cooperation and compassion. The fairy tale is nothing but an illusion.

A chillingly realistic YA sci-fi dystopia from a world of war, environmental destruction and migration

Fourteen-year-old Jony spends his time like most of the other “juniors”: in the safety of a Europe which is cut off from the rest of the world by a massive wall; he goes to a school where the teaching is done mostly using virtual reality, and in his free time he browses online games. He lets his life be run by the System, which knows what is best for everyone, what they should eat, drink, experience and feel. But then things begin to happen which force him to take off his rose-tinted digital spectacles. The teacher František Tichý has moved away from the Terezín Ghetto of his previous books (Transport to Eternity, 2017, Magnesia Litera Award; The Labyrinth of Endless Encounters, 2020), and in this final book of his loose trilogy he ventures forth to a dystopian world in the near future where freedom and individuality are completely subservient to the dictates of the Orwellian state machinery and the System. This gripping story manages to pose complex questions about the relationship between individual freedom and personal responsibility, and the limits and dangers of “enhancing” technologies. What impresses the most is the detailed worldbuilding of a believable future, elegantly captured in Stanislav Setinský’s illustrations, and a hypermodern language which Tichý imbues with Anglicisms both existing and invented by the author.

Age 13+

Read an excerpt from the book here.

A horror detective story about two sisters, whose world is created from the surreal visions of Vojtěch Mašek, one of the most acclaimed Czech comics authors.

When one of the Dietl sisters ends up in hospital after what appears to be a brutal attack, leaving her with a mutilated face and unable to move, Mašek leads the reader on a detective story exploring change of identity, doppelgängers, deformation, hallucination and altered states of mind in contrast with idyllic family life. This comics takes place in a fictional world woven from dreams, hazy and distorted memories of childhood fears, fear of the unknown and the desire for a safe hiding place. Reality constantly disrupted by doubts, changing points of view, the neurotic need to find objective truth. All this is contained in the story about the Dietl sisters – many theories, many possibilities but seemingly with only one solution. Mašek employs a unique multilayered art style, combining backgrounds created from various texts, newspaper cuttings and patterns with the main plot taking place in the foreground. The connections and juxtapositions between these two levels brilliantly evoking the main themes of the book.

A balanced collection of short stories, exploring from several perspectives what it means to be a middle-aged woman today.

Magdalena Platzová has written several books to date, including novels and short story collections. In her latest collection of short fiction, she explores the theme of women coping with midlife. Although each story focuses on something different and introduces new characters and situations, the reader soon begins to sense they form a single, coherent portrait of a woman during a particular stage in her life. The situations of the characters are revealed through confrontations with those around them: men and women, the elderly, children, and even the dead. What emerges from these encounters above all is the desire for freedom. The women are either returning or settling somewhere new, searching for a place of their own, where they might have a life beyond the needs and expectations of society. The stories create a unique space of experience, approaching an almost auto-fictional representation of what it means to be a middle-aged woman today.

Prague Noir contains short stories by fourteen leading Czech authors, exploring the many forms of Prague crimes, mysteries and secrets, continuing the rich tradition of detective and mystery fiction with Prague motifs.

The result is a unique and stylistically varied collection of stories by well-known Czech authors as well as rising stars. The book is also an unusual guide to traditional and lesser-known Prague sights.

Visit Charles Bridge with Miloš Urban, explore the mysterious world of the Jewish ghetto with Petr Stančík, read Petra Soukupová’s account of an unexplained disappearance in Stromovka park or follow Kateřina Tučková’s investigation into the dark past of an old house on the bank of the Vltava river.

This volume, edited by literary critic Pavel Mandys, will be published in English in 2017 by the New York-based Akashic Books as part of their prestigious Noir series.

The book features stories by Chaim Cigan, Martin Goffa, Irena Hejdová, Michaela Klevisová, Štěpán Kopřiva, Ondřej Neff, Jiří W. Procházka, Markéta Pilátová, Petra Soukupová, Michal Sýkora, Petr Stančík, Petr Šabach, Kateřina Tučková, Miloš Urban.

The true story of a Marian miracle in the Czech borderlands reveals the limits of mutual trust and faith, as well as the hardships faced by strong women within the patriarchal society of the late nineteenth century.

Writer and screenwriter Sára Zeithammerová’s second novel was inspired by a Marian miracle in Suchý Důl in the Broumov region. In the late nineteenth century, the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared several times to fourteen-year-old Kristina. The author uses this historically documented event to construct a convincing fictional world populated by ambiguous characters. The novel’s momentum is driven by an unusually chosen unreliable narrator—Kristina’s widowed mother Aloisie. Although she is initially sceptical of her daughter’s vision, the crowds of pilgrims streaming into the village come to her inn’s rescue during a time of particular hardship. The two prominent female figures repeatedly come up against the limits of patriarchal society. Conventional yet fresh in its storytelling, the novel rests on the solid foundations of thorough historical research and thoughtful composition. With a creeping sense of unease, the author captures the intense relationship between mother and daughter, the shifting mood within the village community, and the tension between faith as an intimate experience and a source of social pressure.

A prompt and powerful literary response to the war in Ukraine by the award-winning Czech writer

A Czech in Ukraine in search of his alter ego. A gang of homeless kids driven from a cellar by tenants using it as a shelter from the war. A German couple who “rented a womb” in Ukraine, whose child is now stuck in Kyiv. A teenager partnered with a Valkyrie for the distribution of lavash in besieged Mariupol, who delays his flight until it is too late. A Russian academic mounting a protest in the centre of Moscow, in a costume from Swan Lake. They may not be soldiers at the front, but for the characters in these stories, life will never again be as it was before the war. Jan Němec has produced a work that could hardly be more different from Ways of Writing about Love (2019), his previous fiction. One thing hasn’t changed, though: he is writing not about “themes” but about what really matters in life. “The war fuelled me with an anger I needed to write about. I wanted to know what fiction can do right now – without the benefit of hindsight, without separation by several hundred kilometres. I wrote five stories – two of the west, two Ukrainian, one Russian – as someone might light one cigarette after another. They all talk about war, but it’s not always clear who the enemy is,” says the writer.

A coming-of-age story about street fighting, parrot meat, and growing up in a small town.

Over four chapters in the debut novella Lover/Fighter we travel with the narrator through the years 2014, 2019, 2023, and 2031. We move from the nostalgic past of a small town to a dystopian future in Prague, with street brawling lying at the heart of this pacy and entertaining story. The protagonist uses insight and a distinctive lightness to describe the fights she has been involved in, as well as those she has heard about. Both the minor and major brawls are connected by several storylines, which are related to the small town where the narrator grew up, or a girl named Kendra – the love of her life.

In her first work of prose, Kristina Hamplová proves to be a lively storyteller with a talent for observation, who is not afraid to include references to popular culture or various quirky motifs in her book. The author brings to life the experiences of a girl born in the second half of the 1990s, and reveals how her generation lives and what its concerns are.