The Other Lives of Hynek Harr

The 1860s. Czech society is reviving and claiming its place in the monarchy. The first Czech associations were founded, some of which survive to the present day. Many others will not be so lucky.  Hynek Harr's book Other Lives tells the story of one such association. The story of the first Czech parapsychological society, whose members tried to lay the scientific foundations for the study of telepathy and spiritualism before most scientists decided that telepathy and spiritualism had no scientific basis. The novel combines the reality of the 19th century with the vision of the world promoted by parapsychological theories. From this foundation grows a fanciful tale of tolerance, national and human identity, but mostly about Hynek Harr, a young math teacher, who stops by a meeting of Czech parapsychologists one Sunday, and set events in motion, that will completely change his life.  As a gifted medium, he goes to Berlin, gets involved in the war between Austria and Prussia, only to find that everything is a little different. Jakub Dotlačil (born. 1979) grew up in Roudnice nad Labem. He studied Bohemian and Slovak studies in Prague. He now lives with his family in the Netherlands, where he teaches linguistics at the University of Groningen. Hynek Harr's novel Other Lives is his first novel.