Concrete, Bones, and Dreams

Short stories in which our world intertwines with fantasy. Pavel Renčín is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Czech fantasy. His books mix fantasy, mystery thriller, detective fiction and horror. He has also gained popularity in the Czech fantasy community as a co-organiser of the Comic-Con Prague festival. The short story collection Beton, kosti a sny (Concrete, Bones and Dreams) is one of his first books, but this does not detract from its value—quite the opposite. It comes from a period when Renčín was dedicated to the urban fantasy genre. This is a very popular subgenre today, and Renčín was one of the first Czech writers to devote himself to it. And thanks to the response at the time, he also became the leading domestic representative of this movement. In the collection, we find a wide stylistic range connected by the intertwining of our familiar environment with fantasy elements. There's playing Dungeons & Dragons as a gateway to the realm of adventure, goblins and elves walking in our world, ghosts on the Nusle Bridge, and a stylish detective story with supernatural elements. Renčín never set boundaries in his texts, and the listener of the new audiobook can cross them with him in the evocative narration by Zuzana Kajnarová and Adam Ernest.