Host foreign rights catalogue spring 2021 / Exportní katalog nakladatelství Host jaro 2021

Spring

foreign rights catalogue 2021

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

At Host, one of the largest in‑ dependent publishing houses in the Czech Republic, we have focused on contemporary Czech and world writing for almost thirty years. The Host brand has become a guarantee of high­‑ quality litera­ture in many genres. We are renowned for the care we take with our editing and the excel‑ lence of our graphic design. Our primary aim is to find the right readers for the ­outstanding books we offer. We take pains to provide ongoing care for our books and their ­authors after publication.

We currently publish about 150 titles annually, in genres including the following: general fic­ tion, SF and fantasy, crime fiction, the thriller, children’s literature, popular science, specialist literature, poetry.

Host is proud to publish many leading Czech authors. Their popularity with readers and the wealth of literary awards to come their way confirm us in our belief that painstaking care for a book — from manuscript stage through to the last detail — makes perfect sense. Our authors include Alena Mornštajnová and Kateřina Tučková, whose best­selling works account for hund­ reds of thousands of copies and have been translated into many languages. Our Czech literature programme comprises all the genres mentioned above.

Our literature in translation programme, too, has a great deal to offer. The various stories we take from all over the world are characterized by readability, literary excellence and — last but not least — careful translation. Thanks to us, Czech readers are acquainted with works by authors including Olga Tokarczuk, F ­ redrik ­Backman, Chimamanda Ngozi ­Adichie, B ­ ernardine Evaristo, Nino ­Haratischwili and Muriel Barbery.

Our crime fiction programme is an in­ tegral part of what we do. In their chosen setting of criminal investigation, our authors

respond to topical issues — a matter of great importance to us. We regard the publication of the first part of Stieg Larsson’s Millen­nium series as a significant moment in our history, for it was this that launched the Nordic noir phenomenon on the Czech market. Our best­ ‑performing authors in this genre currently include Lars Kepler, J­ ussi ­Adler‑Olsen and Peter May. In recent years we have strengthened our list by adding SF and fantasy, young adult fiction and children’s literature programmes. As we have no fear of the un­ explored, we delight in introducing new trends to the Czech market. The most interesting names on our SF­‑in­‑translation list include N. K. Jemisin, Ted Chiang, Anthony Ryan and Liu Cixin; our Czech SF authors, notably Pavel Bareš and Petra Stehlíková, have also performed very well. As for children’s literature, our titles include works by ­successful authors A ­ leksandra ­Mizielińska and ­Daniel ­Mizieliński, Marianne ­Dubuc, ­Emilia Dziu­bak, Oksana Bula, and ­Roberto Santiago. Another focus of ours is the high­‑quality Czech book for child­ ren, by which we bring together an original story with great artwork.

In terms of society, politics and art, the world is changing in all kinds of ways.

Fortunately, we will always have books to cap­ ture this change. Some of these you will find on our nonfiction list. In the ­Klimax series, Host publishes ori­ginal works on issues of climate change.

The history of Host is associated with the literary review of the same name, which first appeared in 1985 as a samizdat antho­ logy. The Host book­‑publishing house was es­ tablished in the 1990s for poetry and li­terary theory, genres to which it remains true. Since the Nineties, the publishing house has been owned by Miroslav Balaštík, Tomáš Reichel and Martin Stöhr.

You can view our books and meet our au­thors and team at regular events, in­cluding author’s readings, panel discussions and book fairs. We take part every year in the interna­ tional book fairs in Frankfurt, London, Bo­ logna and, of course, Prague, as well as fairs in other parts of the Czech Republic.

Contents Fiction Alena Mornštajnová November Fall / Listopád novel; 6

Matěj Dadák The Tongueless Man / Muž bez jazyka novel; 7

Martina Leierová This Town, This River / Tohle město, tahle řeka novel; 8

Tomáš Boukal Journey of the Dead / Cesta mrtvých novel; 9

Klára Aycox Pech / Pech detective stories; 10

Iva Hadj Moussa A Demon from a Housing Estate / Démon ze sídliště novel; 11

Petr Šesták The Park Continuum / Kontinuita parku novel; 12

Lubomír Větříšek Two Years Down the Toilet / Dva roky v hajzlu novel; 13

Fantasy

Children’s books

Petra Stehlíková Nasterea / Nasterea

Jakub Špičák Jamie’s Journey / Kubíkova cesta

fantasy novel; 14

Zuzana Hartmanová Eye of the Storm / Oko bouře fantasy novel; 15

Sci-fi Přemysl Krejčík Chocolate for the Wehrmacht / Čokoláda pro Wehrmacht dieselpunk novel / alternative history; 16

Vilém Koubek Postmortem Predation / Posmrtná predace fantasy novel / noir; 17

children’s book; 18

Non­‑fiction Viktorie Hanišová Concrete and Clay / Beton a hlína book of interviews; 19

Alena Mornštajnová

November Fall / Listopád

6

Alena Mornštajnová (born 1963) is a prose writer, the author of six books. More than 450,000 copies of her books have been sold in the Czech Republic alone. Her novel Hana / Hana has been published in twelve languages, including English and German; rights have been sold to Italy, Romania, Turkey, The Netherlands and Serbia. For this novel, the author received the 2017 Czech Book Award (both the main prize and the Students’ Award) and the Databáze knih Award (2017 Book of the Year and New Book of 2017). Film rights have been sold to Happy Celluloid.

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if the events of Novem‑ ber 1989 had a different outcome? A leading Czech contemporary novelist returns with another powerful novel. published in April

novel hardback 303 pages

How would Czechs live now if communism was on­going, and they remained divided within and from the rest of the world by an iron curtain?

Alena Mornštajnová’s latest work is the dramatic story of an ordinary family divided and brought to con­ frontation by the great events of one November night.

We follow the path of Marie Hajná, as she is arrested and then sentenced to twenty years in prison for her part in the demonstrations. The likelihood that she will see her children grow to adulthood is slight, but she refuses to give up hope. And she has letters to keep her going.

The story of a young girl unfolds alongside ­Marie’s. Magdalena is taken from her parents and placed in a ‘sana­torium’ for the raising of communist cadres. One day, the two destinies intersect — with a result that contradicts the hopes and wishes of both individuals.

The author has written a stirring, spellbinding tale of what might have happened in her homeland but did not. What she describes is not so different from life in many places in today’s world.

isbn 978-80-275-0593-7

Fiction

Matěj Dadák

The Tongueless Man / Muž bez jazyka

7

Matěj Dadák (born 1975) is a writer, screenwriter, playwright, member of Prague’s Činoherní klub theatre company, and cinema and TV actor.

In 2010, his first book Horowitz / Horowitz was shortlisted for the Magnesia Litera Newcomer of the Year award. He is author of the screenplays for the television films A Stranger’s Story / Cizí příběh and Triple Life / Trojí život. Since 2018, Činoherní klub has been performing Matěj Dadák’s play A Pilgrimage to Lhasa / Poutníci do Lhasy, with the author in the main role.

A novel about self‑deception, getting the balance right, and a lost writer whose themes pass him by.

published in February

novel hardback

Forty­‑year­‑old writer Arnošt Doubek has been travelling around reading from his first work for longer than he cares to remember. The label of promising young author is an inescapable burden: years have passed since he wrote anything new, and the promise has evaporated. Arnošt uses what remains of his energy on his charm and keeping a veil over his life. But he is finding self­‑deception ever harder, especially when he has no choice but to remain sober. Then a visit to his hometown sets off a sequence of dramatic events that forces out the truth. Where Arnošt fails as a writer, his heroes — a sick father, a true love, a sister called Alenka, Bolshevik, and, above all, the Tongueless Man — come to his aid.

A smooth­‑flowing story peppered with keen metaphors of self­‑deception that asks who we really are and who we would like to be. Along with Matěj Dadák’s protagonist, the reader experiences the growing need for an anchor in life and true knowledge of the self.

301 pages isbn 978-80-275-0534-0

Fiction

Martina Leierová

This Town, This River / Tohle město, tahle řeka

8

Martina Leierová (born 1967) is a journalist and writer. She came on the Czech literary scene in 2017 with the novel House with a Borrowed View / Dům s vypůjčeným výhledem, in which she captures the art world and life in ­Japan. She has travelled widely, notably in India and the United States, spending extended periods in Washington, Vienna and Tokyo.

Since 2019 she has lived in Rome, where she continues to write for Czech newspapers and is working on a new book.

One time, one house, many destinies. In her second novel Martina Leierová asks: How much can a chance encounter with some­ one else’s stories change a life? published in March

novel hardback

Every house has its stories. Some houses have secrets, others their own destiny. A case in point is the yellow apartment building on an inconspicuous City street near the River. But to what extent is its story deter­ mined by its occupants, Róza the photographer and ornithologist, Hilský the writer, Majer the entrepreneur, Klára the agoraphobic, and Mrs Cartier? And what has become of Vrána the caretaker? As the occupants go on with their seemingly independent lives, the powerful narrative approaches an unanticipated climax. No one realizes how much and how reliably the decisions they make every day seal their own fate, and with it that of the aged building.

The lives of the occupants of the old apartment building appear as calm in their flow as the nearby River. But while the murky surface gives the illusion of permanence, the currents beneath are gathering germs of change, destruction and unexpected joy.

Aspects of the heroes’ lives are about to burst through the surface.

271 pages isbn 978-80-275-0591-3

Fiction

Tomáš Boukal

Journey of the Dead / Cesta mrtvých

9

Tomáš Boukal (born 1977) works at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pardubice. He has a longstanding professional interest in indigenous peoples of the North and the relation of hunters, fishermen and gatherers to their taiga environment.

In addition to the many monographs and articles he has written for his profession, he is author of the work of fiction Graveyard of Brides / Hřbitov nevěst (2018).

The true story of a hunter of the Siberian Mansi people, reflecting the sad his­tory of a small‑numbered people which fell victim to the Soviet era and its demise. published in April

novel hardback

Sasha lives far from civilization by the upper reaches of the Pelym River, which has its sources in the foot­ hills of the Ural Mountains. Twenty years ago, several Mansi families were still building their settlements here.

One by one, these families have disappeared. No one but Sasha remains to hunt elk and bears in the forest.

The departure of his friends has strengthened his bond with cheap alcohol. In his drunkenness, he raises his hand to Peťka, one of his few remaining companions.

Although forgiveness is a necessity of life in the so­ litary conditions of the vast taiga, justice soon makes its presence felt. But not even prison can suppress the soul of a hunter. Times of freedom in his taiga home come to life in Sasha’s memories of his family and in pictures from old stories. In the end, the worst punishment is meted out by time itself; on returning home to find that his relatives are dead, Sasha loses the will to live and embarks on a gradual departure from this world, in the company of his personal demons and woodland spirits.

191 pages isbn 978-80-275-0594-4

Fiction

Klára Aycox

Pech / Pech

10

Klára Aycox (born 1983) graduated from a faculty of education and now works as a teacher of English. She lives at the midpoint between Liberec and Jablonec, near the famous no. 11 tramline. Her book of stories featuring Detective Chief Inspector Pech is her debut work of fiction.

How far must Chief Inspector Pech go to see justice done without endangering his nearest and dearest? And will he find solutions at a point where law and justice depart from each other? published in March

detective stories hardback 504 pages isbn 978-80-275-0523-4

Complex, morally eccentric Chief Inspector Pech is transferred temporarily from Prague to the North Bo­ hemian city of Liberec, where his family lives. A new case introduces him to members of the local Roma community as well as to neo­‑Nazi cells. Apparently straightforward at first, the case soon takes an unex­ pected turn, sending the investigation along the famous tram line no. 11 be­tween the cities of Liberec and Jablonec. The ­bodies of girls found there raise many new questions. Are these strange murders connected with the xenophobia in Liberec that is increasingly prevalent? To what extent is Pech’s brother involved in the matter? What can be done when the investiga­ tor — unlike the ­reader — cannot see into the minds of potential criminals?

Pech makes a new start in his career by the tracks of tramline no. 11. In subsequent stories, he tackles xeno­ phobia, racism, intolerance and football hooliganism.

Klára Aycox’s vivid whodunnit has a rhythm as regular as the rumble of a tram on a track. It is based in the photogenic surroundings of the periphery, charac­ ters to whom we can relate, and themes of present­‑day resonance.

Fiction

Iva Hadj Moussa

A Demon from a Housing Estate / Démon ze sídliště

11

Iva Hadj Moussa (born 1979) is a graduate in Psychology from Masaryk University in Brno. After her studies, she worked briefly at the mental­ ‑health support centre in Bruntál and then at the Transport Research Centre in Brno. Later, she moved to Prague and changed her line of work; she now makes her living as a copywriter.

She is the screenwriter of The World’s ­Smallest Elephant / Nejmenší slon na světě, a TV series for very young children. In 2020, Host published her humorous novel A Šalina Named Desire / Šalina do stanice touha.

Small town, growing up, inner darkness…

Often, the most terrifying demons reside within us. With hyperbole and humour, this author is unafraid to summon them. published in May

Sixteen­‑year­‑old Šimon lives on the outskirts of Tábor, a small town in southern Bohemia. He longs to escape the world around him, which he finds deadly boring and rife with hypocrisy, although the black­‑metal band in which he plays with friends Drake, Arman and Ludacris offers some relief from reality. One day, a mysterious fi­ gure called Sorat enters their lives. With his help, the boys summon the spirit of a long­‑dead girl. After that, things really start to move.

Humour is back in Czech fiction! In Iva Hadj ­Moussa’s second humorous novel published by Host, this humour is not the wise, kindly sort; it is irony­‑tinged, cutting and ruthless.

novel hardback 272 pages isbn 978-80-275-0673-6

Fiction

Petr Šesták

The Park Continuum / Kontinuita parku

12

Petr Šesták (born 1981) is a graduate of Charles University in Prague. For two years, he lived in a motor home as he travelled about Europe with a mobile exhibition of photographs. His experiences of the nomadic life are captured in the poetic, philosophical travel book A Nomad’s Gallery / Kočovná galerie (2014). His volume of short stories The Hunt / Štvanice (2015) also draws on his stays abroad. He now lives mainly in Prague. He runs an analogue photo booth and organizes cultural events in a small border town.

How does someone brought up in Normali­ zation and then with the conveniences of capi­ talism make a meaningful life? And how can this life be squeezed into one small border town? to be published in June

novel

Everything is speeding up. Only trees stubbornly insist on growing slowly.

Josef no longer has time to waste. After years of study abroad, he returns to his birthplace to lead the ‘responsible’ life of a secondary­‑school teacher.

The open arms waiting for him in the picturesque border town are like a freshly set trap. The world may be ­turning into a global village, but a small town will always be a small town. Josef’s roots and the history of the town are reflected in the old park, where dan­ gerous memories lurk. Still, the sunlit future has no time for shrubbery: the park is about to be revitalized.

This is a grotesquely existential novel about one generation caught in the cracks between Nor­ malization and an analogue childhood on one hand and capi­talism and the inrush of new technologies on the other; of a town on the edge, between East and West.

hardback 255 pages isbn 978-80-275-0710-8

Fiction

Lubomír Větříšek

Two Years Down the Toilet / Dva roky v hajzlu

13

Lubomír Větříšek (born 1964) completed his secondary education at a trade school before embarking on his two­‑year compulsory military service in 1983. On his debut work, he says that he ‘carried it around in my head from the time I left the army’.

He wrote it down in the belief that his friends would enjoy reading it. He was persuaded to submit the manuscript for publication by a relative, a blind grammar­‑school teacher from Kyjov who now lives in retirement.

Your hair gets cut, you wave goodbye to your freedom, your girls and your dreams… and soon your life is in danger.

published in March

novel paperback 238 pages isbn 978-80-275-0589-0

Aged nineteen, Luba travels far from home to Bakov nad Jizerou for his military service. He has no choice in the matter. In 1983, military training is at its cruellest.

Bullying is a ubiquitous evil that is allowed to run its course. Two things keep this country boy’s head above water: his excellent physical shape and his amiability.

Even so, how long he and the other ‘rookies’ will hold out — on barely two hours of sleep a night, subjected to near­‑starvation, and endless rituals of toil and hu­mi­ liation — remains to be seen. Will they get around the old­ ‑stagers and gain the favour of Commander Janek? What will happen if someone trains a live ­weapon on them?

Who will emerge from his time in Bakov a grown man, and who will be reduced to a wreck? This book is a must­ ‑read, especially for those who underwent compulsory military service, some of whom may still have a military identity card tucked away at home. This book returns to the days when ‘boys were made into men’, allegedly in the service of the homeland.

This truthful memoir about military service in the early 1980s is a remarkable document of a time when a young man could count on one thing only — that two years of his life would go down the toilet.

Fiction

Petra Stehlíková

Nasterea / Nasterea

14

Petra Stehlíková (born 1976) is a writer of fantasy fiction. Her early works, most notably the trilogy Born from Ash / Zrozena z popela, were self­‑published.

Host published her novel The Listener / Naslouchač in 2016. It was very well received by readers, as was its continuation Faya / Faja (2017). When subsequently published as audiobooks, both titles immediately became bestsellers in their genres. Following The Listener and Faya, Nasterea is the third part of a planned fantasy pentalogy.

Another return to a dark world where truth and hope are practically forgotten

published in April

fantasy novel hardback

Omstakland has been attacked. A human saved by Ilan has unleashed the forces of hell. By the skin of her teeth, Ilan herself has succeeded in uncovering the words and the meaning of the ancient prophecy. She has found the way — and also the place sought by several genera­ tions, where there is no life and poisonous grey clouds conceal a passage to the other side of the retea.

This place is home to the nasterei, the greatest menace in the Duval Mountains. What are these much­‑feared creatures? Why are they now attacking with greater frequency and force? And what is really on the other side?

In Ilan’s world, no one has an answer to these questions. Those who knew something are long dead.

And those who left for the other side never returned.

Ilan knows that no one can help her; she is alone, with no warriors to protect her. As she is a glasser, the nas­ terei will not harm her. But will this be enough to keep her alive?

501 pages isbn 978-80-275-0605-7

Fantasy

Zuzana Hartmanová

ZUZ ANA HARTMANOVA

Podobně nejednoznačný dystopický svět, kdy na začátku vůbec netušíte, kdo je padouch a kdo hrdina, a musíte si na to z indicií jako při detektivní hře přijít sami, nabízí například cenami ověnčená trilogie Zlomená země N. K. Jemisinové. […] Krysy apokalypsy vás potáhnou na nitce směrem k mlhavé a magickou bouří zahalené budoucnosti. Nechte se.

Pevnost

Eye of the Storm / Oko bouře

15

ZUZANA HARTMANOVA

Krysy apokalypsy

Zuzana Hartmanová (born 1990) is a writer of fantasy fiction.

Toho, kdo má rád rozkošatělé příběhy plné magie, úkla- She dů, intrik, bojů o moc a hlubokých emocí, kniha Před also writes reviews for the popular bouří nezklame. Zuzana Hartmanová ve své fantasy vytvořila hodněwebsite neobvyklý svět s mnoha postavami of the Night / a spleonline Children titými osudy.

Děti noci. Her literary debut was XB-1 the short novel Night Swan / Noční Místy mi magično spojené s technologiemi, které mají chránit lidstvo a jejichž selhání může mítshe fatální důsledky, labuť (2017), which followed up trochu připomínalo Naslouchače Petry Stehlíkové. Což ale nevadí, protože se ve výsledku v obou případech jedná with the novel Night Wings / Perutě o důkaz toho, že česká fantastika má čtenářům co nabídnoci (2019). part of the Rats nout. Román Před bouří The first se vedle děl světové fantastiky s podobnou tematikou rozhodně nemusí stydět. of the Apocalypse trilogy, the ­novel Děti noci Before the Storm / Před bouří, appeared in 2020.

KNIHA DRUHA

Krysy apokalypsy 369 Kč

KNIHA DRUHA

ISBN 978-80-275-0595-1

Host

Second part of the post‑apocalyptic trilogy Rats of the Apocalypse

published in April

fantasy novel

Even the gods need hope. As those with power fight for control of the known world, magic becomes ever less predictable. No good deed goes unpunished. Noble intentions are crushed under wheels of betrayal and misunderstanding.

Arumiel’s plans are slowly falling apart, and vultures are circling in anticipation of their share. Yet the Great Redeemer remains lord of many lives, which he may extinguish on a whim at any time. The blind obedience of his subjects is a thing of the past, however; too many have lost faith and been seduced by a vision of freedom.

What will prove to be the proverbial last straw that will inspire those long silent to speak? What truth must be revealed? And who will have to die for it? Any decision Arumiel makes could bring about Ler’s doom.

Yet it might just save the planet…

paperback 391 pages isbn 978-80-275-0595-1

Fantasy

Přemysl Krejčík

Chocolate for the Wehrmacht / Čokoláda pro Wehrmacht

16

Přemysl Krejčík (born 1991) is a prose writer and poet. He is author of the volumes of poetry Fragile: Do Not Carry / Křehké nepřenášet (2015) and Asphalt Flamingo / Asfaltovej plameňák (2017), the collection of SF stories Cybersex / Kybersex (2016), the novel A Universal Catalogue of the Desperate / Uni­ verzální katalog zoufalců (2016), and the hip­‑hop­‑inspired thriller Little NY / Malej NY (2019), for which he was shortlisted for the Jiří Orten Prize.

He is editor­‑in­‑chief of Partonyma, a literary magazine.

Dieselpunk novel with an alternative history of the Second World War

published in February

dieselpunk novel / alternative history paperback

Welcome to Prague in 1942 — a city of dieselpunk aesthetics and wild evenings of jazz but also of constant fear inspired by Nazi repression. The streets are roamed by riders on state­‑of­‑the­‑art Schlachthund motorcycles, units of collaborators plotting to take the place of Hitler, and youngsters infected with the germ of modern music.

London has rejected the idea of an attempt on the life of Reichsprotektor Heydrich and reversed its strategy of support for the Czechoslovak resistance.

Paratroopers still on the territory of Czechoslovakia must now focus on new targets. Their new assignment sees them teamed up with living legend the ‘Pious Gunman’ on a secret operation code­‑named Golem, by which they are to capture the plans of a futuristic weapon — a machine shrouded in myth that is said to resemble a man.

The other side are after the plans too, of course. But do these plans even exist? And if they do, is the machine all it is cracked up to be?

295 pages isbn 978-80-275-0533-3

Sci-fi

Vilém Koubek

Postmortem Predation / Posmrtná predace

17

Vilém Koubek (born 1988) has been involved in video games journalism since he was a boy. After studying Czech at the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University in Brno he went into text editing, which led to his co­‑authorship (with Jana Kilianová) of the graphic novel The Corrector / Korektor (2014). He followed his debut work of prose, the splatterpunk novel The Blade of Entropy / Čepel entro­ pie (2018), with the critically acclaimed post­‑apocalyptic SF Organic Noose / Organická oprátka (2019).

A poet of the Czech action fantasy returns to the scene of a crime in this rainy roman noir.

published in February

fantasy novel / noir

A single job can turn the life of a private investigator on its head. Vincent Krhavý finds just such a job at the bottom of an empty bottle and in a full ashtray.

When the job refuses to go away, he decides to take it.

In the later years of the 21st century, thirst can be a wicked thing, and debts tend to lead to the grave rather than the pub. His temples throbbing from a hangover and with a soulful of demons, Krhavý boards a train for a remote region called Rest.

Little does he know that madness and suffering await him there. And it is not long before the first corpses appear. After the local underworld makes itself known, Krhavý’s reality becomes a weeping wound that not even astronomical cynicism and lashings of disin­ fectant can cure.

Vilém Koubek is well on his way to be­coming an ­author who can straddle genres and create fresh ones.

paperback 288 pages isbn 978-80-275-0583-8

Sci-fi

Jakub Špičák

Jamie’s Journey / Kubíkova cesta

18

Jakub Špičák (born 1974) makes his living as a software engineer. His work is inspired by his two sons. He writes in an authentic, unmannered style about the kind of ordinary things we sometimes forget in our world of web conferencing and online shopping.

Illustrator Petra Lukovicsová (born 1980) is a mother of two from Slovakia. A qualified toymaker, she now works as a freelance illustrator and artist.

With chapters just the right length for bedtime, the story is straightforward and touching in its sincerity.

published in May

5+ children’s book hardback 144 pages isbn 978-80-275-0596-8

illustrations by Petra Lukovicsová

The fondness of earlier generations of young Czech ­readers for Johnny’s Journey / Honzíkova cesta by Bohu­mil Říha (first published in 1954) made it a classic of Czech literature. Jakub Špičák’s book could have been subtitled Johnny’s Journey for the 21st Century. Forget about the farming cooperative and the neighbours’ goat, however; this book is for children who grew up with the mobile phone.

Jamie has just returned from school with his end­ ‑of‑year report. The first grade is over, so the holidays can begin! The problem is, though, Dad hasn’t found time to prepare the pool, and Mum is busy in front of her exercise video. Luckily for Jamie, his grandparents are around. Who even cares that they can’t switch off Caps Lock on the computer!

If you have forgotten what holidays are like among apartment blocks, why not dip into Jamie’s Journey along with your kids? Although packed with inspira­ tion on how to return a sense of freedom to children’s leisure time, it is above all great reading for children about children. If reading Jamie’s Journey doesn’t make you want to ride the fairground swans and declare true friendship for life, raise your hand!

Children’s books

Viktorie Hanišová

Concrete and Clay / Beton a hlína

19

Viktorie Hanišová (born 1980) is the author of three novels. She debuted in 2015 with Anežka / Anežka about the dysfunctional relationship of a mother and her adoptive daughter, concealed racism and stereotyping.

The Mushroom Gatherer / Hou­ bařka (2018) looks at trauma in childhood and domestic violence, while Reconstruction / Rekonstrukce (2019) deals with a parent’s suicide. The short story collection A Long Track / Dlouhá trať, which addresses the theme of suicide, appeared in 2020. Her books are being translated into nine languages.

Although situations and approaches of the inter­ viewees differ, they have one thing in common: all answer the question ‘What are we going to do?’ with an unequivocal ‘Something!’ published in April

book of interviews paperback 261 pages isbn 978-80-275-0599-9

The climate crisis is a fact of life in the city — which means that city dwellers cannot ignore the challenges it presents.

In the western world, most people live in towns and cities — in many cases in the kind of ‘concrete jungle’ which has replaced the countryside in our cultural imagi­ nation. We have come to associate city living with career, speed, progress and civilization, things which are often at ­variance with the natural world. Many of us continue to ignore the global perspective on the climate crisis, which shows that wildfires, floods and droughts do not discrimi­ nate. An investigation of our locality will quickly prove that the na­tural world is still very much with us. Here is a vege­ table patch; there is a smell of compost; the buzzing of bees is everywhere; someone has planted a tree over there; our stores are selling eggs from free­‑range chickens; the flowers on the café table are from a volunteer plant.

For her book, the author has interviewed thirteen people who try their utmost to live responsibly and sus­ tainably in the hectic environment of a modern­‑day city.

Conversation partners include an enthusiastic gardener on a community allotment, a horticultural activist, a Pra­ gue beekeeper, and organizers of a com­posting system.

Non­‑fiction