History

Obušky a chačapuri

Zápisky z Gruzie

To be published: Q2 2026

Batons and Khachapuri. Notes from Georgia. From September 2024 to September 2025, Georgia underwent a transformation—from a young democracy with a pro-European orientation to a state ruled by a single party, where fear, censorship, and the systematic elimination of the opposition reign supreme. In the space of a single year, a gradual but relentless transformation took place. The book follows how the change took place – month by month. The author is a young Czech woman who spent a year in Georgia as a researcher, but instead of doing her usual fieldwork, she witnessed a dramatic social upheaval.

Jeden oceán, dvě moře, tři kontinenty

Wilfried N’Sondé

One Ocean, Two Seas, Three Continents. His name was Nsaku Ne Vunda. Born around 1583 on the banks of the Congo River, orphaned at an early age and raised in reverence for his ancestors and traditions, he was later educated by missionaries and baptized Dom António Manuel on the day of his ordination. At the dawn of the 17th century, the King of Kongo entrusted the young priest with a historic mission: to travel to Rome as his envoy to the Pope.

As he leaves his homeland behind, Nsaku Ne Vunda cannot yet imagine that the long journey ahead will carry him far beyond Europe—to the shores of the New World—and that the ship on which he sets sail is filled with enslaved men and women. His voyage across one ocean, two seas, and three continents becomes a profound spiritual and human trial, confronting him with violence, injustice, and the limits of his faith in both God and humanity.

Pakt

Stalin, Hitler a příběh jedné vražedné aliance 1939–1941

Claudia Weber

The Pact. Stalin, Hitler and the Story of a Murderous Alliance 1939–1941. Hitler’s alliance with Stalin, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, was not only a temporary armstice between the two totalitarian world powers but practically enabled the Nazi Germany to start the World War II by attacking Poland and simultaneously enabled the Stalinist Soviet Union to occupy the Baltic states and after the war with Finland a part of its territory, too. Thus during the first twenty-two months of the World War II the collaboration of the two dictators changed the political situation on the whole continent fundamentally.

Říkali mi Gojele

aneb židovská dobrodružství křesťanského chlapce, když skončilo šoa

Karl von Wetzky

They Called Me Gojele. The Jewish Adventures of a Christian Boy after the End of Shoah. This partly autobiographical novel by Czech-German writer Karl von Wetzky takes place shortly after the Second World War. Twelve years old Heinrich Adolf and his mother are about to be deported to Germany, so they set off for a centre in northern Moravia that gathers Germans from the Bohemia for resettlement. However, by coincidence and due to a clerical error, they arrive in a small town where the surviving Jews are concentrated, preparing for their journey to Palestine.

Věk Rudých Mravenců

Tanya Pyankova

The Age of Red Ants. This title is the fourth novel of Taňa Pjankova. It tells a story about the so-called Holodomor period, i.e. Ukrainian famine, that took place between 1932 and 1933. The story follows three main characters – Dusya, Svyryd and Solya – whose fates are the result of almost three years of studying archival materials. As the author herself states, they are not fictitious characters. In addition to this three storylines, the author also handles the contrast between the dying traditional village and the Soviet system, interestingly working with the embodiment of Hunger as an allegorical figure.

Prokletí impéria

Ukrajina, Polsko a scestí ruských dějin

Martin Schulze Wessel

The Curse of the Empire. Ukraine, Poland and the Straits of Russian History. This well-founded work by a leading German historian aims to illuminate from a historical perspective the current aggressive Russian war and anti-Western Russian attitudes with their historical roots. It traces the dynamics of Russian empire-building over the last three hundred years or so, i.e. since the time of Peter the Great. It is not, however, a study of local conflicts – the author places them in the broader European context and explains the interplay, cooperation or competition of the major powers, paying particular attention to the long-standing cooperation between Russia and Germany, the unfortunate consequences of which were evident until recently.

Dvanáct Dnů

Příběh maďarského povstání 1956

Victor Sebestyen

Twelve Days. The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. The book is a day-by-day account of the defining moment of the Cold War – the inspiring but brutally crushed Hungarian Uprising. His book incorporates newly released official documents and archive material, family diaries, and eyewitness testimony. We witness the thrilling first days when – armed only with a few rifles, petrol bombs, and desperate courage – the people of Budapest rose up against their Soviet masters and nearly succeeded.

Autobiografie jednoho pařížského domu

Příběhy, osudy a deportace 1942–1944

Ruth Zylberman

The Autobiography of a Parisian House. Stories, Fates and Deportations 1942–1944. At number 209 rue Saint-Maurus in the 10th arrondissement of Paris there is an apartment building where families of craftsmen and workers, immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, have lived since the 1850s. Generations have grown up here, love and friendships have been forged and daily life has been regularly interrupted by the disasters and violence of the 20th century. Among others, nine Jewish children were deported from here in the 1940s. Their fates are the key to the author’s magnificent novel’s testimony about the memory of places and the invisible threads that connect the living and the dead.

Antikomunistické manifesty

Čtyři knihy, které formovaly studenou válku

John V. Fleming

The Anti-Communist Manifestos. Four Books that Shaped the Cold War. After retiring from Princeton University Professor Fleming devoted himself to his hobby, namely book-binding. Thus he came across a long-forgotten American bestseller: Out of the Night by Jan Valtin. Keeping to his lifelong specialization which is comparative literature and his credo that quality is best seen through comparison he compared this literary discovery of his with two best-known books of this genre and one completely unknown.

Co skrývá Jeruzalém

Pohřbená historie nejvíce znesvářeného města světa

Andrew Lawler

Under Jerusalem. The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City. The book traces the multilayered history of discovering the Jerusalem underground since mid-19^th century up to present. The account of archaeological achievements and their political, cultural and religious impact is written with historical insight and storytelling gift of an experienced journalist. The story of a city tangled on all civilization levels from religious zeal through nationalist and power interests all the way to geographic conditions is told in a most unbiased manner. In a historical depiction of war – both metaphorical and literal – over the spiritual heritage belonging not only to the Christian civilization the author takes no parts.

Apoštol Pavel, posel Božího království

Paula Fredriksen

Paul: The Pagan’s Apostle. The book provides an excellent study of the life and times of the apostle Paul. The renowned American historian presents a very reader-friendly and engaging follow-up to her previous work dealing with Saint Augustine, Jesus Christ as a historical personality, and the period of early Christianity in general.

Literární reportáže

Alena Wagnerová

Literary Reportage. The writer, editor and oral historian Alena Wagnerová has been involved in the significant genre of literary reportage for more than 50 years. The collection selected by the Maraton publishing house comprises the best of her texts written in 1965–2016, i.e. both texts published in magazines in the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland, and those that could not be published in the late-1960s Czechoslovakia due to political reasons.