A new novel by the Magnesia Litera Award winner for prose
Pavla Horáková's novel offers a remarkable dialogue between two narrative voices separated by more than a hundred years: Teacher Anežka speaks from our presence, trying to make sense of her own confusions and confusing times, while reflecting on the handwritten memoirs of the Moravian peasant woman Kateřina, peculiar, confident women, who makes up for her lack of formal education with her innate acumen and perceptiveness.
Among the many themes that link the two narrative levels, one stands out: the fascination that both women feel in the face of Vienna, this strange amalgam of worldliness and provincialism, hectic present and nostalgia for an irretrievable past, foreign and familiar - and at one time also the second largest Czech city. Katherine stayed in Vienna in 1912, a time when the glory of the proud imperial capital was at its peak. In 2020, Anežka follows in her footsteps to Vienna to learn more about her predecessor.
In doing so, he discovers how tightly intertwined the history of the Czech lands and Austria are, discovers the facts, that we don't talk much about here, or even speak inappropriately, ...he's dealing with his love life, and he's sort of inadvertently figuring out who she is - and who she would like to be - herself.
