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New Czech Books Spring 2018 Published for Promotional Purposes by the Czech Literary Centre New Czech Books Spring 2018 Published for promotional purposes by the Czech Literary Centre ISBN 978-80-7051-246-3 Books that gain popularity amongst readers contain a unique mixture of two worlds: the familiar and the unfamiliar. Reality, or how we perceive it, is reflected in the first. While the second is based on imagination and the joy it brings us. Every good piece of literature allows readers to tran- scend the boundary between these two worlds, thereby enriching and CzechLit – structuring their perception of reality. This is one reason why literature isn’t ‘fake news’ but ‘news which stays news’ about ourselves. Czech Literary Centre In 2018, the Czechs will look back at their one hundred years of sover- eign existence. As was the case in the past, Czech books have an irre- is a state-funded organisation supporting and promoting Czech placeable social function. Whenever borders begin to form (or reform) literature abroad and in the Czech Republic. The centre is a sec- between people, literature offers a means to cross these boundaries tion of the Moravian Library. into spaces where people can meet again – regardless of culture, edu- cation, age, gender, nationality and religion. In the Spring 2018 edition of New Czech Books, we present an overview of current titles that have the CzechLit: undeniable potential to overcome the confines of a small language and can act as a ‘border crossing’ even in other languages. • Promotes prose, literature for • Cooperates with the network of children and young adults, po- Czech Centres, which promote In the previous edition of New Czech Books, we wrote about the Czech etry, drama, comics, non-fiction Czech culture abroad, as well Ministry of Culture’s new grants for publishing Czech literature abroad and new forms of literature as with other governmental and (publishers can request up to 70% of the total costs). These grants were non-governmental cultural and introduced in connection with the Czech Republic’s role as the guest • Acts as an information hub for non-profit organisations and of honour at the 2019 Leipzig Book Fair. It is an opportunity to present foreign publishers, translators, individuals Czech literature, not only to the German-speaking audience, but also Czech studies specialists, event in the context of Europe and the world. Additionally, the Czech Liter- organisers and others interest- • Is involved in the presentation ary Centre provides travel grants for authors, which publishers, event ed in Czech literature and book of Czech literature at book fairs organisers and the authors themselves can apply for. Furthermore, culture abroad in cooperation with its translators of Czech can apply twice a year for residencies in Prague parent institution and Brno. I believe this practical support package will help Czech books • Provides grants for authors to find publishers, translators and, above all, readers, abroad. attend cultural events abroad • Holds the annual Susanna Roth and in the Czech Republic Award for young translators of Czech literature Ondřej Buddeus • Organises residencies for for- CzechLit Head Coordinator eign translators, Czech studies specialists and authors • Runs the bilingual website czechlit.cz with information about books, authors, grants, residencies and Czech literature news Czech Literary Centre Národní dům nám. Míru 9 120 00 Prague 2 Czech Republic www.czechlit.cz [email protected] CONTENTS PROSE CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT Jakuba Katalpa 8 Petra Soukupová & Tereza Ščerbová 42 THE DEN WHO KILLED SNOWY? Lucie Faulerová 10 Petr Stančík & Lucie Dvořáková 46 DUST CATCHERS CHRUJDA THE BADGER CONQUERS SPACE Petra Soukupová 12 Olga Černá & Miroslav Šašek 50 BEST FOR EVERYBODY THE PROFESSOR FROM ESSEX’S LOST DIARY Petr Borkovec 14 LIDO DI DANTE COMICS Alena Mornštajnová 16 HANA Marta Morice 54 SECRET AGENT Václav Kahuda 18 BEING Ondřej Nezbeda, Tomáš Hodan & Petra Soukupová 58 TOTAL DEPLOYMENT David Zábranský 20 NORTHERN RENAISSANCE Karel Veselý 22 NON-FICTION BOMB«FUNK Soňa Červená 62 Eugen Liška Jnr 24 PINING AVERTED THE CREATION Michal Ajvaz 64 Hana Kolaříková 26 THE COSMOS AS SELF-CREATION REAL LEOPARD-SKIN COAT Michaela Klevisová 28 LOST IN THE FOG Daniel Tučka 30 WORMWOOD I–III POETRY Simona Racková 34 WHILE WATCHDOGS SLEEP Elsa Aids 36 THE BOOK OF LIMITATIONS Jan Nemček 38 VACANT LOTS Prose 9 Prose – Literary Fiction Jakuba Katalpa THE DEN After writing the extremely successful novel, Němci (The Germans), Jakuba Katalpa returns with a feminist-inflected multi-layered novel set in the present. In her 70s, Květa is plagued by a sense She intends to help her daughter care of loneliness and uselessness after her for her household and small shop op- husband’s death. As a result, she makes posite Květa’s house, but meanwhile is a small den in her cellar and waits for confronted with cultural, generational a visitor, whom she might imprison and and familial alienation. The characters’ tell the story of her life to. A postman stories, which intersect in Prague, are named Bohumil becomes the victim. rooted in missed encounters, misun- Photo: Jakuba Katalpa’s archive Meanwhile in America, Akiko Ikedao derstandings, and fate’s shared loneli- is dying of cancer. Hoang Thi Anh ness. They are illustrated through the leaves her homeland and sets out for book’s short chapters and matter-of-fact the long trip from Vietnam to Prague. style. Jakuba Katalpa (b. 1979), a prose writer, made her debut in 2006 with her novel Je hlína k snědku? (Is Soil to be Eaten?), which earned her a nomination for the Magnesia Litera Award in the Discovery of the Year category. Her novel Hořké moře (The Bitter Sea, 2008) was nominated for the Jiří Orten Award for authors under thirty. Her next book, Němci (The Germans, 2012), received the Josef Škvorecký Award and Czech Book Award. It was shortlisted for the Magnesia Litera in the Prose category. The novel has already been translated and published in four lan- guages, including German. Translation into a fifth language is now underway. “This novel becomes a small, planet- wide search for answers to the ordinary, but which still invokes extremely important questions throughout the course of our lives.” —Hospodářské noviny “[Katalpa] describes loneliness in its rawest and most genuine form. She has refrained from any pathos or emotional RIGHTS SOLD: blackmail. The fates of her characters Slovenia (Police Dubove) are true and that is what makes them RIGHTS: Doupě powerful.” Dana Blatná Literary Agency Host, 2017, 312 pp —Právo Dana Blatná: [email protected] www.dbagency.cz English and German sample 8 translations available 11 Prose – Literary Fiction Lucie Faulerová DUST CATCHERS With an atmosphere reminiscent of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, this novel explores the ancient theme of crime and punishment within the family. This debut novel, by Lucie Faulerová, a woman. She seeks to reveal the hid- is a harsh and jarring story about den truth about her mother, family and a young woman’s attitude to moth- herself. Masochistic torment, however, erhood, family and children, as well is not enough to overcome the darkness as her role in society. The themes of of the past. Will violence suffice? Svoboda David Photo: family violence and domestic tyranny Faulerová brilliantly expresses the also surface in the book and a child ambiguity of the line between guilt and becomes a means of manipulating enacting justice. The main character others. In Dust Catchers, relationships addresses the narrator, taking the floor are impaired and complicated in, both, and unsettling his role. The tension the protagonists extended and new from this stylistic approach, the im- family. Gradually, she abandons inti- pressive pace and thrilling plot make macy, work, and her standard role as Dust Catchers an exceptional read. Lucie Faulerová (b. 1989) graduated in Czech studies from Palacký University in Olomouc, where she is currently a literary theory postgraduate student. She works as a dramaturge of cultural events and cooperates with the conceptual artist, Kateřina Šedá. Faulerová is an editor of the literary magazine, Aluze, and also works as a freelance editor and proofreader. She co-authored the book BRNOX. Průvodce brněnským Bronxem (BRNOX. A guide to Brno’s Bronx, 2016) about a so- cially disadvantaged area of Brno, which won the 2016 Magnesia Litera Award for Journalism. Lapači prachu (Dust Catchers, 2017) is her debut novel. “The author is able to make the pow- erful and weighty subject matter more than a moralising story of domestic vio- lence and life crises. [...] An exceptional combination of talent and craft.” —Hospodářské noviny “Dust Catchers is inward-looking, crystal Lapači prachu clear literature.” Torst, 2017, 224 pp —Právo RIGHTS: Torst publishers [email protected] 10 www.torst.cz 13 Prose – Literary Fiction Petra Soukupová BEST FOR EVERYBODY In her latest novel, one of the most successful young Czech authors asks how can we know what is best for others when we ourselves do not know how to be happy? ník č Ten-year-old Viktor is a spoiled trou- personalities, and relationships. Who blemaker who lives with his mother, is really trying to help and who has thirty-year-old theatre actress Hana. betrayed the others? Petra Soukupová is One day, Hana receives an offer to act a master of portraying family relation- in a TV series filmed on the other side ships and the loneliness inside of them. Photo: Richard Klí of the country. She sees this as an op- She has an exceptional understanding portunity to send her son to stay with of, both, child characters, as well as her mother, who lives in the country- those who are nearing the end of their side and has her own strict ideas about lives. how to educate the boy. For each of the Best for Everybody shares certain plot characters, Viktor’s move is intended to points with Soukupová’s latest book for ‘solve’ the root of their current troubles: children, Kdo zabil Snížka (Who Killed what can you do with the remainder Snowy?, p.
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