Released titles

Zástava dechu

Breathlessness. The novel resonates in a colourful and multi-layered way with the contemporary societal theme of how to be a good mother. The whirlwind of events during a single day in the life of a mother of two young children, between tender moments of parental love, heated conflicts and sheer exhaustion, are accompanied by metaphors and images of a time when women walked the world with bared breasts and drank water from springs, in short, of a time when a child’s mother was an entire community, long before plastic jungles and playgrounds.

Neutečeš

Lukáš Hrdlička

You won’t get away. In the Christmas time, two boys hanging out in Prague’s Anděl district have their lives changed when a quick burglary turns into a terrifying encounter with an organised drug trafficking group. At the same time, a new client comes to private detective Kob – she wants to track down her son at any cost.

Step

Oksana Vasyakina

The Steppe. In the hot summer of 2010, when the European part of Russia was engulfed by fires, a 20-year-old girl arrives from Siberia to meet her father, whom she hasn’t seen for ten years. Together they set off on a long journey in his truck and their destination is the untamed steppe in the south of the country. The father, who considers this inhospitable expanse his home and only possession, would like to share it with his grown daughter. However, the taiga-born girl is rather frightened by the open landscape and finds it strange.

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.

Vespod

Béatrice Kahn

Under. The compelling prose Les Dessous (Underwear, 2020) follows three different girls, all of them on the cusp of adulthood. In a small French town in 1963, Elisabeth, hidden under a café table, listens to adult conversations. It’s the day of her friend Thérese’s funeral and she is also reading the diary of Henriette, a Jewish girl, who suffered persecution during the war. Secrets kept undisclosed in the French post-war small town are gradually coming to light. The world of teenage girls is confronted with the adult world, with war and collaboration, conformity and social violence, with large and small betrayals.

Pastýřka snů

Příběh první české letkyně

Iva Tajovská

Shepherdess of Dreams.The story of the first Czech female aviator. Iva Tajovská’s latest novel takes us back to the beginning of the 20th century, to the time of the first aviators and promoters of aviation, Jan Kašpar and Eugen Čihák. The story of Božena Langerová is less known to the public, but all the more interesting, as she was the first Czech woman and the thirteenth woman in the world, to fly a plane. The takeoffs and the downfalls of her “butterfly” serve as a metaphor for the events in her life. In the beginning, Božena is confronted with the male prejudice against women in technical fields and also with the disapproval of her mother, who pressures her to live up to her traditional role.

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.

V osamění

Dorothy B. Hughes

In a Lonely Place. Psychological noir fiction with a criminal theme, which depicts post-war Los Angeles and the life of the upper middle class. The protagonist, Dix Steele, is a former World War II pilot living off his uncle’s money. At first, he appears to be merely someone, who is overly concerned with his appearance and places great emphasis on his own importance, but after meeting his former war buddy Brub, his wife Sylvia and after the encounter with an actress called Laurel, it becomes clear, that he can hardly control his aggression and resentment towards his own fate…

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.