Host foreign rights catalogue autumn 2020 / Exportní katalog nakladatelství Host podzim 2020

Autumn

foreign rights catalogue 2020

Host — vydava­telství, s. r. o.

Radlas 5 602 00 Brno Czech Republic www.hostbrno.cz foreign rights Dana Blatná tel.: +420 608 748 157 e-mail: blatna@hostbrno.cz

Host has long been one of the most prestigious Czech publishers, especially in the area of contemporary Czech fiction, translated fiction, crime novels and thrillers, poetry, non­‑fiction and specialist literature. Now Host publishes children’s, science­‑ -fiction, fantasy and young-adult literature, too.

The roots and interests of Brno-based Host Publishers are linked with the magazine of the same name, which first appeared, in samizdat, in 1985. On the Czech book market Host now has the profile of a practically unique phenomenon. This is thanks to its well established editorial series, authors whose names are among the most prestigious and successful in Czech literature and the Host monthly magazine, which reflects on and enriches the Czech literary scene.

Host has introduced to Czech ­readers the crime novels of Stieg Larsson, D ­ avid Lager­crantz, Lars Kepler, Jussi Adler­‑Olsen, Peter May and ­Henning Mankell, which have been quick to occupy the top of the sales charts. Books

by Czech authors Alena Mornštajnová, Kateřina Tuč­ková, Petra Soukupová, Jiří Hájíček and B ­ ianca Bel­lová have also become bestsellers. But Host can

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of course take pride in more than just its leading role in the sales charts. The content of its catalogue of publications is of remarkably high quality and includes many leading writers from abroad, including Olga Tokar­czuk, Jeffrey Eugenides, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Muriel Barbery, F ­ redrik Back­man, and Czech writers including Jan Němec, Radka Dene­marková, Viktorie Hanišová, Jakuba Katalpa, Ivana Myš­ková, ­Petra Dvo­řáková and Matěj Hořava. Host provides opportunities for début authors, too, be they poets, prose writers or scholars of literature.

Host has also provided a home for the prestigious Czech Library / Česká knižnice series of high­‑quality editions of classic Czech works. Since 2009 Host has published annually a vo­lume entitled The Best Czech Poetry / Nejlepší české básně.

Contents Fiction Petra Soukupová Things Whose Time Has Come / Věci, na které nastal čas novel; 6

Jakuba Katalpa Zuzana’s Breath / Zuzanin dech novel; 7

Matěj Hořava Stopover / Mezipřistání novella; 8

Viktorie Hanišová A Long Track / Dlouhá trať short stories; 9

Michal Sýkora Worst Fears / Nejhorší obavy three short detective stories; 10

Jan Sojka The Family and Other Shelves / Rodina a jiné regály short stories; 11

Vojtěch Rauer At the Hay / Na Seně novel; 12

Jiří Padevět Republic / Republika book of short prose; 13

Miloš Doležal To the Last / Do posledních sil documentary short stories; 14

Children’s books

Fantasy, Sci-fi, Young adult

Irena Hejdová Get Your Bare Foot Off Your Brother! / Nedráždi bráchu bosou nohou

Petra Slováková Lord of the Wizards / Pán čarodějů fantasy YA novel; 19

children’s book; 15

Jana Kloučková Kudrnová, Petra Tomášková One, Two in the Woods / Jedna dvě v lese children’s book; 16

Petra Dvořáková Julie and Words / Julie mezi slovy children’s book; 17

Zbyněk Černík The Great Adventures of Ned and Mishka / Velká dobro­družství medvěda Nedvěda a medvídka Mišky children’s book; 18

Lukáš Vavrečka Tesla Noir / Tesla noir sci­‑fi thriller; 20

Zuzana Hartmanová Before the Storm / Před bouří fantasy novel; 21

Non-fiction Jaromír Marek Interhelpo / Interhelpo non­‑fiction; 22

Jiří Pasz, Adéla Plechatá Normal Madness / Normální šílenství non­‑fiction; 23

Petra Soukupová

Things Whose Time Has Come / Věci, na které nastal čas

Petra Soukupová (born 1982) is one of today’s most successful Czech writers. She has published six books for adults and three for children. She has won or been shortlisted for many prizes; her books appear regularly on the bestseller lists and have been published in eleven languages. Petra Soukupová also works as a drama‑ turge and screenwriter. A feature-film adaptation of her short story “On Short Leash” / “Na krátko” from the vo­ lume To Dis­appear / Zmizet was premiered in 2018.

Life can’t be planned, or even prepared for…

Again, Petra Soukupová has put the everyday life of a family under the microscope.

to be published in November 2020

novel

Alice and Richard have been living together for fifteen years. Theirs was maybe never a great love, or, if it was, maybe this love has been extinguished by the humdrum everyday. In any case, they should stay together for their two children, Charlie and Lola. Now twelve, Charlie is starting to have more than he can take of his parents.

Lola, ten, wants nothing in the world more than a dog.

With everything muffled by the soft blanket of routine, nothing terrible happens to anyone. You wouldn’t call it happiness, but you can live with it.

But then Richard falls in love — deeply and pas­ siona­tely. It seems to him that he has never known anything like it; then again, he may be going through a midlife crisis. Alice doesn’t much care one way or the other. But all certainties are blown, and Charlie and Lola must think a thought no child likes to think.

Is Richard going to leave them? Whatever happens, nothing will be as it was.

hardback 360 pages isbn 978-80-275-0390-2

Fiction

6

Jakuba Katalpa

Zuzana’s Breath / Zuzanin dech

7

Jakuba Katalpa (born 1979) is author of five books. Her novella Is Soil to Be Eaten? / Je hlína k snědku? was shortlisted for a Magnesia Litera award in the Newcomer of the Year cate‑ gory (2007) and the novel The Bitter Sea / Hořké moře for the Jiří Orten Prize (2009). Katalpa’s novel The Ger­ mans / Němci received the Czech Book Award (2013) and the Josef Škvo­ recký Award (2013), and was shortlisted for a Magnesia Litera in the Prose cate­gory (2013); it has been published in five languages including German.

Transport, concentration camp…

After all she has been through, is Zuzana still capable of love? And does she even have any choice in the matter?

published in August 2020

novel hardback 309 pages isbn 978-80-275-0241-7

All the things that keep a person alive…

There are three of them. When they are children, the world is in balance. Later, everything changes. She loves one of the others. Both the others love her.

Zuzana Liebeskindová’s father owns a sugar refinery. She has a care­‑free existence, wanting for nothing and surrounded by love. Strands of burnt sugar drift about in the air. In the small town of Holašovice, the 1930s is a time of sweetness.

Zuzana enters adolescence during the German occupation. Because of her Jewish origins, her fate is predetermined: transport, concentration camp. Although Zuzana’s friends Hanuš and Jan both remain in Holašo­ vice, their paths diverge. The war ends and Zuzana returns from the concentration camp, to the discovery that she has lost even more than she thought.

This dramatic novel does not examine questions of guilt and punishment, nor the debt demanded by great moments in history. With subtlety and surgical precision, Jakuba Katalpa examines what lies beneath the surface. Without passing judgement, she describes and records with great sensitivity those things that allow a person to go on.

Fiction

Matěj Hořava

Stopover / Mezipřistání

8

Matěj Hořava (born 1980) is the pseudo­nym of an author who first came to pro­minence in 2014 with the prose work Distilled Spirit / Pálenka, for which he won a Magnesia Litera award for Newcomer of the Year and the Czech Book Prize. Already trans‑ lated into five languages, it will appear next year in Romania, where much of it is set. The author studied in Brno and has worked as a teacher in Czech villages in the Banat region. Since 2013 he has lived in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Captured in lyrical, figurative, rhythmic prose, the lives of the characters — often hard and marked by bitter experience — merge with the life of the narrator. published in September 2020

novella hardback 136 pages isbn 978-80-275-0370-4

Captivating prose pieces from Georgia A grey, dilapidated estate of prefabricated housing on the out­skirts of Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. A solitary narrator who teaches an evening course in Czech at the university. This is another of his voluntary exiles, again in a world incomprehensible to him. He escapes to the mountains, the sea, ­other foreign countries, his me­mo­ries — and, ever more frequently, to Moravia and Bohemia, homes from which he has fled. On his wan­derings, he meets people whose lives are very different from his own yet reflect his ­insecurities, traumas, desires and small pleasures.

A few years ago, Matěj Hořava won the Magnesia Litera Newcomer of the Year award for his debut work of prose Distilled Spirit / Pálenka. Set in the Banat region, it enchanted many who like challenging reading. Distilled Spi­ rit is one of those rare books that seem to have a soul. This soul has been reborn in Stopover / Mezipřistání. The poe­ tic Banat has given way to a Georgia of contrasts. Although the vast Danube has flowed into the Black Sea, the narrator’s view of the world and ability to capture his day­‑to­‑day reality are as sharp as ever. A book like Stopover doesn’t ­appear every year.

Fiction

Občas se stane, že v půlce závodu zapomenete, proč vlastně soutěžíte.

Viktorie Hanišová (born 1980) debuted Život se někdy zastaví. Ať už je důvodem vědomí in 2015 with the well­‑received novel smrti, osobní selhání, ztracené iluze nebo prostý strach, nevyhnutelně pak přicházejí také úzkosti, Anežka / Anežka, about the dysfunc‑ pochyby a otázky. Jsou to okamžiky, které nutí tional relationship of a mother and her promýšlet vlastní bytí v jasném světle, jehož svit často nepřeje společenským konvencím adoptive daughter, concealed racism a tomu „být jako ostatní“. A to, čemu přeje, se and stereotyping. Her novel The Mush­ zdá tak děsivé, uhrančivé a lákavé zároveň… room Gatherer / Houbařka (2018) looks Prozaička Viktorie Hanišová po třech románech at trauma in childhood ohledává subtilnější a sevřenější prostor and povídky.domestic Tematicky propojené svižné texty jsou jako dobře violence.

The loose trilogy of novels míněné facky: zabolí, ale proberou. Stejně jako addressing motherhood and trauma protagonisté povídek z Dlouhé trati se i čtenář musí nejednou zastavit a sám sebe se ptát:by Reconstruc­ was completed in 2019 Jaký má tohle všechno smysl? Možná to není tion / which is about příjemné,Rekonstrukce, ale kdo jednou začne, už nemůže zpět. A totéž se dá říct i o Dlouhé trati. Možná coming to terms with a parent’s suicide. to není nic líbivého — ale číst přestat nelze.

Her books are being translated into nine languages. isbn 978-80-275-0372-8

Sometimes we forget what we’re running for in the middle of the race… After three novels, Viktorie Hanišová has opted for the tighter space of the short story. published in September 2020

A Long Track / Dlouhá trať

Viktorie Hanišová Dlouhá trať

Viktorie Hanišová

9

Viktorie Hanišová Dlouhá trať

HOST

There are times when life just stops. Death, personal failure, lost illusion, simple fear — all are necessarily accompanied by anxiety, doubt and questioning. There are moments that force us to consider our own being in a bright light focused beyond convention and ‘being like other people’. And what this light shows us is often simultaneously frightening, spellbinding and enticing…

Linked by theme, these brisk prose pieces are like well­‑intentioned slaps; they hurt, but they wake us up. In common with the protagonists of the collection A Long Track / Dlouhá trať, the reader keeps stopping and asking: What’s the sense of all this? It may not be pleasant to brood on, but once the thinking starts, there is no way back. We can say the same about A Long Track — it may not be a nice read, but it is certainly an unputdownable one.

short stories hardback 192 pages isbn 978-80-275-0372-8

Fiction

Michal Sýkora

Worst Fears / Nejhorší obavy

10

Michal Sýkora (born 1971) is the ­author of a two­‑volume mono­ graph on Vla­dimir Nabo­kov and two ­other works of lite­rary scholarship, and the ­author of the detective novel series com­pri­sing: A Case for an Exor­cist / Případ pro exor­ cistu (2012), Blue Sha­dows / Modré stíny (2013), It’s Not Over Yet / Ještě není konec (2016) and Five Dead Dogs / Pět mrtvých psů (2018). These books star the idio­syn­cra­tic Com­ mis­sioner Marie Výrová, whose ca­ses have been turned into a successful television series. The ­author’s work also appears in the anthology Prague Noir (Akashic 2017, USA).

After four novels, popular investigator Marie Výrová returns in a collection of three extended short stories.

published in August 2020

three short detective stories hardback 272 pages isbn 978-80-275-0177-9

Having left the police, Marie has accepted an offer to teach Practical Criminology at the University of Olomouc. But if she was thinking that a peaceful life in academia would protect her from crime, she was mistaken. Once again, she joins forces with her former colleagues, this time on an investigation in which she has a personal interest.

In the story “Before the Flood” / “Před potopou”, at the behest of her student Lucie she revisits a traffic accident of nineteen years earlier — which perhaps was no accident after all. Interest in the long­‑closed case triggers a series of dramatic events that puts her and Lucie’s lives in real danger. In the story “The Life Work of the Academic Plíšek” / “Životní dílo akademika ­Plíška”, she must come to terms with the death of a friend, murdered in circumstances with strong overtones of the classic “locked room mystery”. In the vo­lume’s title story she becomes embroiled in a case whose main players are a womanizing businessman, the faithless wife of a doctor at the local spa and a single mother.

These stories contain everything that makes this author’s novels such great reading — a likeable protagonist, the thrill of the search, plausible characters, colourful surroundings and an interest in topical social issues.

Fiction

Jan Sojka

The Family and Other Shelves / Rodina a jiné regály

11

Jan Sojka (born 1973) is a graduate in Czech Studies and History who teaches at a technical secondary school in Plzeň. He is a writer of prose and poetry. His publications include the novella A Year without February / Rok bez února (2007) and the collection Stories about Hunters and Venuses / Povídky o lov­ cích a venuších (2014). In the novel A Teacher Alone in the Classroom / Učitel je ve třídě sám (2018), he looks at his own profession. Nightslide / Sesuv noci (2019), his fourth, most recent collection, has been published in France.

We conceal our faces with masks and our lives within four walls.

published in September 2020

This compact collection of short stories was written between early March and mid June 2020. This is not to say that coronavirus and quarantine are simplistic, super­ ficial themes here. The stories show people in situations hitherto unknown to them, requiring them to take stock and confront hidden truths about themselves.

A panicked family flees from the city to a relatives’ cottage in the country. A lonely man barricades himself in a highrise flat. Václav suspects his wife of cheating on him. Racked with remorse, Tomáš is about to end things with his lover. Out of the blue, memories settle in every corner of an unknown home.

The return of childhoods, parents, first loves, dusty plans filed on shelves of forgetting. And, at the end of it all, the matter of returning to reality after these hundred days.

short stories hardback 160 pages isbn 978-80-275-0391-9

Fiction

Vojtěch Rauer

At the Hay / Na Seně

12

Vojtěch Rauer (born 2000) is from Havlíčkův Brod, where he passed through the grammar school. He is currently a student at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University, Prague. For his short story “The Giant and Mr Eslin” / “Obr a pan Eslin”, he won first prize in the Face2Art competition. At the Hay / Na Seně is his first novel.

When boyhood is over before you know it…

First novel by a young author who handles language with ex­ ceptional confidence and skill.

published in September 2020

novel

A scent of hay in the air. A clubhouse for a home. A boyhood that promises to go on forever. That’s how things are at the beginning of the hot summer when Šíma meets Vojta and Tobiáš, and they plot revenge on old Habeš, a figure of hate who has long done them harm. No matter that the beer is flat and there’s not much happening with cigarettes and girls. Everything is looking just great when Tobiáš introduces them to a new gang, led by fifteen­‑year­‑old Pavel Neumann, known as P. From that moment on, it is as though the bold threesome make the very worst use of the benefits of adolescence — with no inkling of the possible consequences. At dizzying speed, life takes away their childhood and thrusts them into adulthood The type of story known to many boys from their own experience, which will stay with them in their later years.

hardback 183 pages isbn 978-80-275-0344-5

Fiction

Jiří Padevět

Republic / Republika

13

Jiří Padevět (born 1966) is a ­writer, bookseller and publisher. He is the ­author of several guides to his­tory, including A Guide to Prague under the Protectorate / Průvodce protekto­ rátní Prahou (2013), The Bloody Finale / Krvavé finále (2015) and Bloody Summer of 1945 / Krvavé léto 1945 (2016), and the books of short prose Notes on His­ tory / Poznámky k dějinám (2014), Barbed Wire and Nooses / Ostny a ­oprátky (2018) and Dreams and Axes / Sny a sekyry (2019). He has won Magnesia Litera awards for Book of the Year and Best Work of Nonfiction.

Events of little moment — until something irre­ versible happens.

By the two‑time Magnesia Litera laureate.

For the Czech lands, the twentieth century was a time of fighting, defeat and victory. Above all, it was a time of para­dox crouching in the shadow of great events. In Republic / Republika, Jiří Padevět brings the recent history (1918—1990) of the Czech lands to life in seventy­‑three tales. We learn of happenings of great moment to the people involved but apparently banal and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Of un­expec­ted happenings with drastic, life­‑changing con­sequences. Of incitements to despair but also to lasting hope.

to be published in October 2020

book of short prose hardback 158 pages isbn 978-80-275-0321-6

Fiction

Miloš Doležal

To the Last / Do posledních sil

14

Miloš Doležal (born 1970) is a poet, prose writer, documen‑ tarist, script­writer, researcher and editor. From 1998 to 2018 he worked at Czech Radio in Prague. He has writ‑ ten and co­-written many radio pro‑ grammes and documentaries about wartime and the communist terror of the 1950s, and con­ducted many book-based interviews. His bestknown book is As If We Should Die To­ day / Jako bychom dnes zemřít měli, a monograph about Fr. ­Josef ­Toufar, a martyr of the com­munist regime.

In 2019 Host published the ­author’s book Čurda from Hlína / Čurda z Hlíny.

The Allies are in Normandy and the Protectorate is in darkness… Three documentary accounts from the last days of World War II.

published in August 2020

documentary short stories hardback 378 pages isbn 978-80-7577-543-6

Most of continental Europe remains under German occupation. In its waging of total war, the Third Reich does all in its power to engage forces of darkness.

These are the final months of the Second World War and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and time seems to speed up as dramatic events come together and stories unravel. Some people die of exhaustion, others take their own lives when surrounded by the enemy; cowards flee, the bold search for loved ones displaced or driven from home…

These three documentary accounts tell three stories.

We read of modest heroes on the one hand, their persecutors, tormentors and murderers on the ­other.

The first is the story of the arrest, incarceration in concentration camps and death of painter and writer Josef Čapek, brother of world­‑famous writer Karel.

The second story follows the dramatic path taken

by Vladimír Hauptvogel, one of a chalk (group of para­ troopers) set down in the ­lion’s den of the Protectorate at Easter 1944. The main figure of the final story is Josefina Napravilová, who at war’s end searched all over Europe for children from Lidice, a Czech village razed to the ground by the Nazis.

Fiction

Irena Hejdová

Get Your Bare Foot Off Your Brother! / Nedráždi bráchu bosou nohou

15

Irena Hejdová (born 1977) is a Czech screenwriter, film reviewer and author.

Her work includes screenplays for the film Children of the Night / Děti noci and the TV docusoaps Four Wo­men / Čtyři v tom and Together Forever / Navždy svoji, short stories and books for children.

Zuzana Čupová (born 1995) is comp­leting her studies in Anima‑ tion at Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín.

So far, she has made two short ani‑ mated films, Wedding Day / Veselka and Cloudy / Pod mrakem. She also likes to illustrate, draw, write comics and design rubber stamps.

Do your little darlings sometimes give you a real headache? They do? Then read this book with them. No family therapy could be more entertaining! to be published in October 2020

5+ children’s book

illustrations by Zuzana Čupová

Be ready for you and your kids to have some fun.

Marek has a “horrible” brother. At least that’s how he sees it. Marek calls his brother Weirdo. The thing is, at a certain age all younger siblings are horrible, because the age difference is as deep as the Mariana Trench.

Any excuse will do for a fight or an act of spite, with no let­‑up at weekends. On this day as on all others, the brothers are pushing and shoving each other. Then something goes wrong in the bathroom, and they find themselves falling down the toilet. Having slipped through a narrow pipe, they arrive in a maze of more pipes. This isn’t as impossible as you might think, especially when you’re six and three quarters. Getting out of this mess will be no easy matter. Our little heroes will have more than one setback to contend with. In fact, without the help of readers, the case would be hopeless.

This interactive illustrated book is for siblings large and small.

hardback 56 pages isbn 978-80-275-0392-6

Children’s books

Jana Kloučková Kudrnová, Petra Tomášková

One, Two in the Woods / Jedna dvě v lese

16

Jana Kloučková Kudrnová (born 1981) is a graphic designer, illustrator, visual artist, blogger and mother to two cubs. Though she lives in the woods, she doesn’t like drawing squirrels.

She decided to illustrate a book set in the woods without the use of green.

Average grade in maths: C. Petra Tomášková (born 1982) is a teacher of mathematics and geography and mother to four great discoverers. A founder of the Sedmi­ kráska nursery school, she teaches a course in learning maths through play. She lives in the woods. Average grade in maths: B+ / A−.

The basics of mathe­ matics, made easy­ ‑peasy. This charming, witty book will please parents as well as in­qui­ si­tive pre­schoolers and pri­mary first graders. published in September 2020

A book about maths would be pretty boring — if it weren’t such fun! Numbers, rules, timings and geometric shapes are everywhere, and by knowing what to make of them, we make our lives much easier. The maths lessons in this book will not only get kids out of their chairs, they will take them outdoors and into the woods, up to the treetops and along the swollen stream, with animal guides including Harry the hedgehog and Susie the caterpillar.

Unconventional in approach, this book develops children’s pre­‑mathematical thinking. Most adults remember only a fraction of what they suffered through in primary­‑school maths class, so the mere thought of the maths homework their preschoolers will soon be bringing home may make them anxious.

5+ children’s book hardback 88 pages isbn 978-80-275-0352-0

Children’s books

Petra Dvořáková

Petra Dvořáková (born 1977) is a prose writer and script writer, the author of nine books. The novels The Village / Dědina and The Sur­ geon / Chi­rurg have become best‑ sellers. She won the Magnesia Litera prize in 2007 and her first book for children Julie and Words / Julie mezi slovy (2013) was awarded the Golden Ribbon prize and the Teachers’ Prize.

Julie and Words / Julie mezi slovy

17

illustrations by Katarina Gasko

Katarina Gasko graduated from the Aca­demy of Fine Arts and De‑ sign in Bra­tislava, Slovakia. She now lives in Ca­nada. She creates illustrations and designs for children’s books, editorial, adver­ti­sing and educational material.

After numerous requests from child readers, for this second, expanded edition the author has added adventures with a new‑born sibling. to be published in November 2020

6+ children’s book second, expanded edition hardback 192 pages isbn 978-80-275-0351-3

Having lived through their parents’ divorce, Julie and her younger sister Ela must now learn to live with their dad’s new partner and her children. The break­‑up of the original family brings with it a move from Prague, to a place distant from shopping centres, selective­‑entry schools, nice playgrounds and other conveniences — an ordinary village with a small school. What’s more, Julie’s real mum hasn’t been in touch for ages. But Julie and Ela, together with their nearly­‑brothers Jakub and Vítek, determine to make the best of things.

Sometimes the adventures are fun, sometimes they are tinged with sadness. But there is a solution to everything, and all will end well.

Julie and Words / Julie mezi slovy shows us that what may appear to be one of childhood’s most painful losses doesn’t have to be so. As well as being an engaging story, this novel introduces a range of subjects (such as sex, cyber­bullying, disability and dental hygiene) that often stray into the world of children, there to prove a source of worry as well as humour. By gentle means, the author encourages the reader to think about the meaning and weight of words we encounter everywhere.

Children’s books

Zbyněk Černík

The Great Adventures of Ned and Mishka / Velká dobro­družství

18

medvěda Nedvěda a medvídka Mišky

Zbyněk Černík (born 1951) is an author of books for children and adults. He is also a translator from the Nordic lan­ guages and English. The bears in his work for children have much in com‑ mon with humans, even though they go about on all fours. Sometimes sensible, sometimes foolish, they always enjoy life.

illustrations by Kateřina Hikadová

Kateřina Hikadová (born 1989) is an illustrator and graphic designer who teaches at the Secondary School for Media Graphic Design and Prin­ ting in Prague. Her illustrations appear in the book Flouk and Lila / Flouk a Líla

by Petra Dvořáková (Host, 2015).

Great first reading for beginning readers.

Children will learn lots of beautiful words and sayings from an author who is a keen translator and lover of languages. published in September 2020

5+

Unlike most bears, Ned and little Mishka aren’t solitary creatures. In fact, they live together in one den. We say “den”, but it is a cosy woodland home with a kitchen containing a fridge and a deepfreeze — for hungry bears the most important features of all. And, as you might imagine, Ned and Mishka are peckish most of the time.

We might say that they think with their tummies. Yet their natures are quite different. Mishka likes to try new things, but Ned hates to take risks. The older bear is getting set in his ways, and it’s time to do something about it!

The animated TV series Hungry Bear Tales / Mlsné medvědí příběhy is based on the author’s earlier book with the characters Ned and Mishka A Little Book about Bears / Malá medvědí knížka.

children’s book hardback 112 pages isbn 978-80-275-0343-8

Children’s books

Petra Slováková

Lord of the Wizards / Pán čarodějů

19

Petra Slováková (born 1987) comes from Ostrava. Her previous books are the collection of short stories The Iron­ Night and Other Oddities / Železonoc a jiné podivnosti (2012), the book of two cyberpunk novellas The Cricket in a Box / Cvrček v krabičce (2012) and the steampunk novel The De­ mon of the East End / Démon z East Endu (2015), which was shortlisted for the Aeronautilus prize. Abroad, her work has appeared in the antho‑ logies Dreams from Beyond (2016) and Steampunk Writers around the World (2017).

Magic, love, time travel — the very things that speak most clearly to teenagers, and others.

published in September 2020

fantasy YA novel

Sequel to the YA novel Fragments of Time / Střípky času Jana and Peter have defeated the feared wizard Mabrok in a duel and lived to tell the tale. But unexpected events are in motion, so their problems are far from over.

As they react to sudden twists and turns, they try to fi­ gure out who they are and what they want from life — which is just as tough. Jana is only now getting to know Peter, yet Peter knows all about Jana. Or thinks he does: time travel is somewhat unpredictable. Jana learns that living with someone for real isn’t at all as romantic as she had imagined it.

Not least as that someone is a powerful wizard who adapts the truth to fit his own needs. Peter had wanted to start a new life, but this new life is anything but easy.

Some call him a criminal, others a traitor. As a power struggle for control of Ostrava begins, Peter has no option but to take the place of his former lord.

paperback 520 pages isbn 978-80-275-0371-1

Fantasy, Sci-fi, YA

Lukáš Vavrečka

Tesla Noir / Tesla noir

20

Lukáš Vavrečka (born 1987) graduated in Cultural History from the Univer‑ sity of Pardubice, at whose Faculty of Arts he now teaches. He is also active as a jazz pianist and a blog‑ ger on audio books. His published books include the crime novels An Alibi for Tomorrow Night / Alibi na příští noc (2014) and Give the Girl a Name / Dej holce jméno (2015), and the steampunk / SF work Mesopotamis (2018).

Alternative history thriller set in the world of Nikola Tesla’s inventions

published in August 2020

It is 1936. The lights of automobiles flash through the streets of New York. Above the road, elevated magnetic trains whizz along. Transformers hum on rooftops.

The city’s energy is supplied by plasma channels.

Against his will, young reporter Jamie Collins is drawn into an investigation that begins in hotel room 3327, the most recent home of visionary inventor Nikola Tesla. Three burned corpses have been found on the floor of the room. Tesla has disappeared.

It doesn’t take Collins long to realize that the danger applies to him, too. What’s more, he and quirky, emancipated Lilly Kolben discover that the case is more complicated than it appeared at first. And if Tesla’s last invention falls into the hands of an enigmatic foe, things will only get worse.

sci­‑fi thriller paperback 360 pages isbn 978-80-275-0243-1

Fantasy, Sci-fi, YA

Zuzana Hartmanová

Before the Storm / Před bouří

21

Zuzana Hartmanová (born 1990) works at the Department of Digitiza‑ tion of the Prague Municipal Library, although she is currently on ma‑ ternity leave. She writes reviews for the popular online website Children of the Night / Děti noci. Her literary debut was the short novel Night Swan / Noční labuť (2017), which she followed up with the no­vel Night Wings / Perutě noci (2019). We meet the heroine of those two books in the short story “Circles on the Surface” / “Kruhy na hla­ dině”, which appears in the anthology The Woman with the Swan / Žena s labutí (2018).

Every apocalypse needs its rats… First part of the fantasy trilogy Rats of the Apocalypse / Krysy apokalypsy.

published in August 2020

fantasy novel paperback 384 pages isbn 978-80-7577-846-8

Most stories don’t start with the end of the world.

On Ler, however, the end of the world comes around every seven days, when a magical storm sweeps away everything that isn’t behind a protective barrier. If you knock the gods from the heavens, you must face the consequences…

The gods fell eighty years ago. Their fall left Ler badly scarred and largely uninhabitable.

Magic‑contamina­ted soil, mutation, the absence of ground water — all these things are common. Beyond the city, a single poorly charged battery can be the difference between life and death. Not everyone has come to terms with the situation; some seek ways to outwit natural and human laws — like rats, they look for cracks they can crawl into and survive. But what will happen once people realize the huge gap between survival and living? And what if the gods come to realize it too?

Zuzana Hartmanová shows those who think fantasy fiction is indivisible from a medieval setting that there is much to discover in this genre. So natural is the melding of technology and magic in the novel Before the Storm / Před bouří that we take it as read.

Fantasy, Sci-fi, YA

Jaromír Marek

Interhelpo / Interhelpo

22

Jaromír Marek (born 1967) is a jour­nalist and documentary maker em­ployed as a foreign correspondent by Czech Radio, currently in the United Kingdom, formerly largely in Asia. He used to work for Czech Television.

The tragic story of Czechoslovak settlers in the Soviet Union: Czechoslovaks built a socialist paradise, too. Then they were expelled from it.

published in September 2020

non­‑fiction paperback

Following war and drastic collectivization, in 1921 the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic collapse.

Rescue measures have been introduced. Strict controls on the economy have been relaxed. Assistance (financial and other) is sought from communists from elsewhere.

Every comrade in the world is free to come and help rea­ lize the socialist dream by assisting in the building‑up of Soviet agriculture and industry.

In March 1925, the first of several expeditions of the Czechoslovak cooperative Interhelpo, composed mostly of labourers and small craftsmen, departs for Kirghizia, a region described by communist agitators as a promised land. Imagine the surprise, then, when the expedition arrives in a semi­‑desert at the end of the tracks. But this is just the beginning of a tragic story. Although they succeed in building factories and setting up businesses, few of the Czechoslovak settlers would describe their new life as a dream come true.

Indeed, they face persecution and, ultimately, expulsion.

327 pages isbn 978-80-275-0244-8

Non-fiction

Jiří Pasz, Adéla Plechatá

Normal Madness / Normální šílenství

23

Jiří Pasz (born 1981) is a photographer, do­ cu­men­tary maker, journalist and hu­ma­ni­ta­ rian aid worker. As a member of a research team for the National Institute of Mental Health, he has conducted series of inter‑ views with world authorities on psychiatry and with people living with mental illness.

Adéla Plechatá (born 1993) is a psycho­ logist. She currently works as a re­sear­cher at the National Institute of Men­tal Health, focusing on the development of virtual reality applications and their use. She also pursues in­terests in cognition in patients with schizophrenia and mild cognitive im­ pair­ment and in ­elderly patients in other‑ wise good health.

Conversations on mental health, treating and finding ways to people with mental illness

to be published in October 2020

non­‑fiction hardback 544 pages isbn 978-80-275-0389-6

A quarter of people experience some kind of mental illness in their lifetime. Many others are touched by it or suffer mild symptoms. Mental health is as important as physical health, yet often we speak of it in hushed tones, or behind closed doors. In discussing the fra­gi­ lity of the human mind and the thin line between good mental health and bad, the book Normal Madness / Normální šílenství seeks to put this right.

The book guides the reader through different illnesses and syndromes, including ADHD, depression, disorders on the autism spectrum, schizophrenia, dementia and various types of addiction, all seen through the eyes of therapists on the one hand and patients on the other, in the process refuting widespread misconceptions and prejudices. In conversation and in general terms, experts in the field (e.g. sexologist Petr Weiss and director of Bohnice psychiatric hospital Martin Hollý) describe advances in Czech therapeutic practice, common ways in which patients and their helpers are stigmatized, the connection between mental health and sexuality, and changing relations between psychiatry and religion.

Non-fiction