Moments that seem trivial at first glance, but fateful at the second
What did Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík fight about during Christmas 1941? Was Josef Štemberka, the priest of Lidice, looking forward to the summer of 1942? Did Edvard Beneš know how to build a snowman? Why did Marta Gottwaldová tear her black stockings before her husband's funeral? Who was Archbishop Josef Beran watching from the window of the small chateau in Roželov? What did Engineer Zeman spill on his trousers while watching the Spartakiad?
There are moments that can wound you like thorns. It is as if time pauses for a moment, only to suddenly start running much faster, allowing history to unleash all its accumulated power through them.
Two-time Magnesia Litera award winner Jiří Padevět has long since proven that he can handle such moments and human stories, breathing new life into them in his short stories. Now he presents a new book full of seemingly ordinary micro-stories that precede the pivotal events known from twentieth-century textbooks.
