Apple Tree Roots

Magdalena’s life has entered its final decade. While her body betrays her more and more each day, her mind remains sharp. She returns to her memories and opens up the story of her youth, when her family’s fate was bitterly affected by the confiscation of property and the totalitarianism of the 1950s. The young Magdalena sought a different, more colourful world for herself, which literature provided. Now she is getting used to life in a retirement home.

Lenka moves into her former flat. The thirty-seven-year-old woman has recently broken up with her partner and is starting a new chapter in her life. Thanks to a letter addressed to the former tenant, she gradually gets to know Magdalena, and this correspondence turns both women’s lives upside down.

This sensitive debut novel is not only a deep dive into the souls of its heroines, whose different generational experiences surprisingly connect them more than they divide them. It is also a celebration of the power of literature, storytelling, and writing.

Veronika Kratochvílová (1987) was born in České Budějovice. She has lived in Prague since her studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, and works as a journalist. She is currently the editor-in-chief of the travel monthly Lidé a Země and the author of the video-podcast Exoti. She has written several song lyrics, two television scripts, countless articles, interviews, and diary entries. She is addicted to walking and herbal teas.