The novel Not a Stranger in the Market tells the story of a man whose thoughts are guided by the author from his childhood during the Protectorate to his present age.
It is said that a man becomes wise and understands himself only towards old age - in other words, that he finds himself later in life. But what is the protagonist to do when he literally finds himself?
Yes, the emeritus associate professor of Bohemia Igor Jurášek would never have dreamed in his darkest dreams that when, after many decades, he would go to the small town of Staré Rasoška, where he once started his teaching profession, he would find there, behind a hedge, the corpse of... himself! After the initial shock, the law-abiding man goes to the local police station to report the find. However, such a complex case quickly moves to the highest levels of the police. There has to be a suspect (just like the "war with the Turk"), so the unfortunate finder becomes one himself - and the fact that the police are wondering what to suspect him of only adds to their clumsiness and Jurášek's uncertainty.
Old man, haunted by remorse towards his devoted wife Hedwig, to which - to put it mildly - he was not always entirely faithful, to a whole host of other women, that he couldn't resist, and eventually to a few colleagues or friends, whose journey to the other world he could not (as he accuses himself) prevent, he resorts to a recapitulation of his own life. The resume is unhappy - but as it is usual with Čepelka the novelist, we will not just think or, if not, mourn, but we will be amused by the fate of the man whom the author guides in his thoughts from his childhood during the Protectorate to his present age. Historical and insignificant events, adventures and love, a straight back (less often) or a "dignified" escape from responsibility (much more often) - laugh, dear readers, but don't tell, that you didn't recognize each other in a lot of places...
The ending will surprise even those who thought all along that there would be some either banal or, on the contrary, quite unearthly explanation. After all, it is the same in our lives - extremes are (fortunately) usually avoided, even though the "golden mean" can be a damn winding and thorny road leading to God knows where. But we are guided through the pages of this sometimes amusing, sometimes puzzling, but undoubtedly readable and unusual novel by an author who is no stranger to anything human and who can observe and portray his literary characters like few others.
