Hammering nails

A disturbing horror that uncovers family traumas and ancient secrets

If someone calls you at a strange hour of the day and addresses you by your full name after greeting you, you' d better sit down right away. Good news is not usually communicated like this, and Ema Březinová will experience this rule firsthand. Death, loneliness, and especially the twisted family history she has long tried to forget will find her — but this time she can no longer run from it.

Emma will have no choice but to open old wounds and hope that after so many years of them filling with pus, they can still heal. But not all questions should be answered, and not every mystery can be solved without making a sacrifice.

Darkness envelops Emma' s life, depression strangles her, and paranoia takes over. Her search will awaken powers that are not to be trifled with.

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Vilém Koubek presents himself as a masterful author of atmospheric horror that will shake up what you consider real and what is supernatural. A weighty book that will leave a deep mark.
— Jiří Štěpán, editor

I had planned to read in the evenings, but in the end it was just one evening and lasted almost until dawn. In this book, Vilém Koubek presents himself a bit like the Czech Jozef Karika: It skillfully combines elements of horror, psychological thriller and mythology in a terrifying environment where not only abandoned apartment buildings but also the human mind and with it all our certainties are crumbling. Pretty much one after the other. The descriptions play with all of the reader' s senses, the lines of the book thoughtfully filling the head with the sounds, tastes, and smells of fear. You can almost touch it. No slow start and dead ends, the author builds a terrifying atmosphere from the first page, slowly thickening it, coming up with the unexpected and changing direction, until the tension is physically painful at times.
— Petra Klabouchová, author of the novels Ignis fatuus and At the North Wall