Host foreign rights catalogue autumn 2024 / Exportní katalog nakladatelství Host podzim2024
Host — vydavatelství, s. r. o.
Radlas 5
602 00 Brno
Czech Republic
www.hostbrno.cz
foreign rights
Dana Blatná Literary Agency
tel.: +420 608 748 157
e-mail: blatna@dbagency.cz
www.dbagency.cz
At Host, one of the largest independent 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 excellence 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 fiction, 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 hundreds 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, Fredrik Backman, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Bernardine Evaristo, Nino Haratischwili and Muriel Barbery
Our crime fiction programme is an integral 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, Jussi AdlerOlsen 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 unexplored, 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 Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński, Marianne Dubuc, Emilia Dziubak, Oksana Bula, and Roberto Santiago. Another focus of ours is the high-quality Czech book for children, 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 capture this change. Some of these you will find on our non-fiction 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 anthology. The Host book-publishing house was established 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 international book fairs in Frankfurt, London, Bologna and, of course, Prague, as well as fairs in other parts of the Czech Republic.
Fiction
Jiří Hájíček
Dragon on a Dirt Road / Drak na polní cestě novel; 7
Jana Šrámková, Jan Němec
The Apartment. A two-hander novel / Byt. Román ve dvou novel; 8
Veronika Bendová
Season’s End at the Úštěk Lido / Konec sezóny na koupališti Úštěk short stories; 9
Vilém Koubek
Hammering Nails / Zatloukání hřebů horror novel; 10
Veronika Büchler
Dubna. Little Islands of Stability / Dubna. Ostrůvky stability novel; 11
Emma Kausc
Plot Disruption / Narušení děje novel; 12
Fantasy, Sci-fi, Young Adult
Petr Hanel
You Know Shit about Stars / O hvězdách víš hovno Young Adult; 13
Jiří Hájíček (b. 1967) is a prose writer and poet, the author of eleven books. His books have been published in thirteen languages. He has received many prizes for his novels, including the Magnesia Litera for Prose, the Magnesia Litera Book of the Year, the Book of the Year in the prestigious Lidové noviny poll and the Czech Book Prize. A feature film is based on his novel Green Horse Rustlers / Zloději zelených koní
A contemporary drama about a rural community under pressure from big
business
Kristýna, a thirty-five-year-old teacher of music, returns to her birthplace in rural South Bohemia, after years of living in Prague. She wishes to straighten out relations with her family and put her past behind her. She and Tomáš, director of the local farm, are old acquaintances united in the need to salvage their private lives and an interest in a dilapidated building on the village square. Tomáš is fifty-five and starting to feel his age; he has long lived alone. Kristýna is a bringer of hope, but also of disharmony stemming from differences between city and country life. Black cars appear in the village carrying young men in suits and ties, who go from cottage to cottage offering to buy shares in the farm. Tomáš realizes that his private life is far less complex than this new crisis…
Hájíček’s new novel is set in a provincial scene of collectivization in the Fifties and property restitution in the Nineties, where new dramas unfold as the “dragons” of big business pounce on agricultural enterprises, again transforming their communities. Meanwhile, people remain the same.
245 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2215-6
Jana Šrámková, Jan Němec
Jana Šrámková (b. 1982) is a prizewinning writer of fiction, children’s books, comics scripts, and animated films); she also writes for the stage.
Jan Němec (b. 1981) is also a prizewinning writer. His most successful novel A History of Light / Dějiny světla (2013) won an EU Prize for Literature. His books have been published in fourteen languages. Currently, he is editor-in-chief of Host, a prestigious literary monthly.
The Apartment. A two-hander
novel / Byt. Román ve dvou
An experimental novel set in the present. The authors have discovered an unusual way to write a book together, yet separately.
Daniel owns an apartment in Tábor that he lives in only at weekends, because he works in Prague. Having left her boyfriend, Zuzana is low on cash, so she is glad to pay rent on weekdays only. But for a space which each inhabits in their own way, Daniel and Zuzana have practically nothing in common; indeed, the shared space tends to divide rather than unite. Although he cares for a dying father, it always falls to her to handle life’s rougher edges. Two present-day stories that brush against one another but barely connect. Two soliloquies that the reader makes into a conversation.
to be published in December novel hardback
app 280 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2201-9
This highly original novel can be read from one side or the other or by alternating the voices. But this is no literary game. The reader’s choice is a fateful one: Daniel and Zuzana’s whole future depends on the reader’s direction.
The authors say about their work: ‘We wanted to write a book together: because no one has done such a thing for a long time, and to discover what it’s like when the perspectives of different characters aren’t simulated by a single author. We also wanted to give readers the chance to read a novel from two sides, so deciding how it begins and ends.’
Veronika Bendová
Veronika Bendová (b. 1974) is a graduate in Screenwriting and Dramaturgy from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She made her literary debut in 2012, with the novella The Euphrates: Open All Hours / Nonstop Eufrat. This was followed in 2019 by A Depleted Land / Vytěženej kraj, which was shortlisted for the Magnesia Litera Prose Award. She occasionally publishes short stories, two of which have been broadcast on Czech Radio. She now works for the Museum of Czech Literature.
Season’s End at the Úštěk Lido / Konec sezóny na koupališti Úštěk
Twelve stories about low-ranking heroes, with extras in the main roles
A feast of the Passion in a pub’s private room degenerates into a seething mass of characters. A conversation about “love that lasted” ends with a report from bed battlegrounds. A car breaks down, a life is turned upside down, someone searches in vain for a place to rest. Long after dark, the Eden Park Hotel has its “CLOSED” sign up… It will not escape the attentive reader that the stories are subtly connected by small recurring motifs. The occasional sense that time is cyclical and characters unseen or merely glimpsed have big roles to play, is something we all recognize. Are we the heroes of our lives or just extras in them? A season is ending; doors are slowly closing. Is that all there is? Then suddenly, without warning, “a golden arrow of awareness pierces our sullen fatigue: this is happiness after all’.
‘These stories are powerful, sad, touching and funny. They show kindness by their keen understanding of everyday lives, portrayed in brilliant detail. Far from being the work of a dispassionate observer, they demonstrate an outlook on life with spiritual overtones, albeit one unheroically problematized.’
— Vilma Kadlečková, writer
Vilém Koubek
Vilém Koubek (b. 1988) is currently a staff writer on the magazine 100 + 1 Interesting Things Abroad / 100 + 1 zahraniční zajímavost. He followed his debut work of prose, the splatterpunk novel The Blade of Entropy / Čepel entropie (2018), with the critically acclaimed postapocalyptic SF Organic Noose / Organická oprátka (2019). In 2021, he published Postmortem Predation / Posmrtná predace, the first of his noir fictions featuring Vincent Krhavý; the second, Laughing Beasts / Smějící se bestie, came in 2022.
Disturbing horror that uncovers family trauma and long-held secrets
Hammering Nails / Zatloukání hřebů
If someone calls you at a strange hour and addresses you by your full name, you had better sit down: good news doesn’t tend to be given this way, as Ema Březinová can testify. Death and loneliness have come for her – along with the twisted family history she has always tried to forget, and from which there is now no escape.
Ema has no choice but to open old wounds and hope that after long years of festering they will finally heal. Not all questions should be answered, however. Nor can every mystery be solved without human sacrifice.
Ema’s life is shrouded in darkness, choked by depression, and governed by paranoia. Because her search has awakened powers that are not to be messed with…
horror novel hardback
215 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2145-6
‘Vilém Koubek proves to be a master exponent of the atmospheric horror that disturbs by what appears real and what appears supernatural. A weighty book that makes a deep mark.’
— Jiří Štěpán, editor
Veronika
Büchler
Veronika Büchler (b. 1980) comes from Brno. She works as a psychologist and psychotherapist at a private practice in Prague. She spent part of her childhood at the nuclear research centre in Dubna, where her father worked as a laser engineer. She entered the literary scene with the book I Was a Punk Too / Taky sem byla punk (2001). Several of her short stories have appeared in Host magazine.
Dubna: Little Islands of Stability / Dubna. Ostrůvky stability
The story of a guarded town where the atom and human characters are split
Petr Weiner is a gifted nuclear physicist who longs to make a career. The problem is, he lives in communist Czechoslovakia, where a clean slate doesn’t get anyone very far – particularly those who don’t cooperate as they should. Weiner’s last hopes of a career in science will be extinguished for good unless he accepts State Security’s offer to travel to Dubna in the Soviet Union, a centre of nuclear research, and bring back information that may interest the secret services. He is about to find out that the unpredictable world of Dubna plays by its own rules.
The author switches between elements of classic prose and a style akin to reportage, a balancing act that she manages brilliantly. The reader may think they know this particular evil in all its forms, but Büchler captures it anew.
240 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2241-5
The author says about her work: ‘I spent an important part of my childhood in this town. The conditions I lived in there were completely different from those in which I’ve spent the rest of my life. The story I tell is based on fact and witness testimonies, which I have adapted for literary purposes to paint a picture of lives and characters of the Dubna of those years.’
Emma Kausc
Emma Kausc is from Prague. She is a graduate in Contemporary Culture, Literature and Critical Theory from King’s College London. In 2018, her collection of poetry Cycles / Cykly was shortlisted for the Jiří Orten Prize, a prestigious award for authors under 30.
Plot Disruption / Narušení děje
Literature and life have a common denominator: the story.
The protagonist of this autobiographical novel is thirty-three-year-old Emma, who is trying to make sense of her Czech roots, cope with the death of her mother, and find answers about her partner’s disappearance. History does not flow past her; it accumulates and shatters. Amid the remains, the water rises to catastrophic levels and the fires intensify. Emma scrapes a way through, hoping to distance herself from a love in which she is winner and loser. We reach the end of her narrative together or individually; the story remains. As does the question of whether telling a story can help someone come to terms with tragedy.
Emma Kausc’s first novel shows the author to be a teller of original, thoughtful, vivid stories. The text is replete with colourful imagery that demonstrates the skills of an established poet and gifted prose writer.
978-80-275-2196-8
After working in the Netherlands for several years, he took the advice of motivational slogans on social media and followed his dreams by exchanging the manager’s chair for the camera. He now spends his days shooting film locations and running the Instagram profile of Writers’ Club / Klub psáčů, and his evenings regretting his choices. Because of his depraved perfectionism, he spent an unhealthy length of time writing Stars.
Have you ever fancied someone on the bus and thought about reaching out to them?
Marky, a straight-shooting teenager with his own sense of humour, addresses a girl he doesn’t know on the bus, triggering a countdown without realizing it. Valerie is self-confident and fun. But behind the glowing Instagram profile is a girl still trying to find herself. They reach the joint conclusion that secondary school isn’t as it appears in TV series and books: hotties aren’t always cool, good boys can be toxic, not all grand gestures are romantic and not every intimate moment is magical. Life begins to make more sense – until it stops making sense altogether.
As Marky’s grand ideas crumble, he can’t fail to notice that something far worse is happening to Val. The clock is ticking. The evening will soon be upon them.
Kateřina Šardická, the book’s editor, says: ‘An innovative debut that is a fresh take on the YA genre. Marky’s narration is brash, funny, exciting, and, above all, incredibly realistic. What teenage boys truly think about…’
Urla / Urla Petra Stehlíková
Petra Stehlíková (b. 1976) is a writer of fantasy fiction. Her early works were self-published. Host published her novel The Listener / Naslouchač in 2016. It was very well received by readers, as were its two continuations. When subsequently published as audiobooks, all these three titles immediately became bestsellers in their genres. Following The Listener, Faya and Nasterea, Urla is the fourth part of a planned fantasy pentalogy. The series is being translated into Ukrainian and Polish.
An eagerly awaited return to the dark world of the Listener series. The fourth part of a planned pentalogy
Ilan has wakened the swords and taken by force what the glassers have always longed for. Freedom. Even so, she has taken away the liberty of several warriors with her underground: they are unwelcome there. Ilan has much to do and many obstacles to overcome.
to be published in November
fantasy novel hardback
app. 450 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2219-4
First, she must persuade her men to follow or at least walk alongside her on her chosen path – to places where cities with pounding gates once stood, where no human has set foot in many ages, where long-forgotten histories reside that would better remain so. Ilan knows she can do none of this without warriors. And the warrior she needs most is the one who most opposes her choices.
‘The series changes and evolves as its heroine grows, and this is its trump card. The author doesn’t over-protect or sugarcoat her characters, who get into all kinds of messes and die by the dozen.’
— Pevnost
‘A well-thought-out, carefully plotted story of a post-apocalyptic dystopia, written in a polished, highly readable style brimming with neologisms. A phenomenal feat that bears comparison with work produced anywhere in the world.’
— MF Dnes
Kristina M. Waagnerová
After grammar school she went on to graduate in Medicine at Charles University, Prague. She works as a physician. She also teaches Obstetrics at the Medical College in Prague and is a script consultant for TV series with medical themes. Her fantasy tetralogy The Golden Grai / Zlatá grai was seventeen years in the making. The opening part of the same name will be followed in the coming years by The Touch of the Viatar / Dotek viatáru, The Prints of the Khribda / Otisky Chribdy and The Kiss of the Maintré / Polibek Maintré.
The Golden Grai / Zlatá grai
First part of an epic series from the pen of a new hope of Czech fantasy
Most warriors consider the wildling queen Ymira and her wild followers unpredictable madwomen. They fight, they bleed, they love this life unconditionally…
Now Ymira has a new wild card, Arachné Isarell, a girl from the ancient Grai race who has survived two years in the inhospitable Shadowlands with a single aim – to place herself under the command of the wildling queen, so becoming Aithra’s most lethal weapon.
Against them is Prince Daimon, one of the most promising heirs of the Angel race, with young Bastien Demnogonis in his service.
Isarell and Bastien become pawns in a dangerous game played by ruthless schemers, which will end with their victory or the laying down of their lives. In a world ruled by radiant jorrei, where bloodthirsty sarrei roam the forests and ancient powers are awakening in human tribes, there is no place for weaklings.
567 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2211-8
Dana Beranová
Dana Beranová (b. 1976) works as a radiologist’s assistant. Her first fantasy novel was Eve and the Book of Knowledge / Eva a Kniha poznání (2014). Her short story Never Say Never / Nikdy neříkej nikdy appeared in the anthology Woman with Lion / Žena se lvem (2016). Apart from fiction, she writes poems and song lyrics. The Magpie’s Song / Zpěv straky, her first book about a witch called Henika, appeared in 2022.
The Magpie’s Cry / Křik straky
Follow-up to the acclaimed fantasy novel
The Magpie’s Song, with an unconventional heroine
Henika the witch has no desire for further adventures. She wishes only to live in her little house, continue to heal people from the neighbourhood, and dream of her unrequited love for the smith. But her fate has something else in store.
Her journey with an unlikely ally towards revelation of a truth will be far more demanding, treacherous and painful than she might have expected. Earth finds itself at the brink of civil war as a mad king demands the murder of all survivors of three forbidden orders and anyone else who disagrees with him. Could things be any worse?
When she is faced with a difficult choice, Henika realizes they could. In her search for allies all over the land, she returns to places she has known, where a chapter of her life and of the whole land may be ending.
fantasy novel
hardback
344 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2198-2
If you enjoy fantasy fiction and appreciate a wellwritten story with an unconventional approach to the genre and a strong, believable female protagonist, you will be enchanted by The Magpie’s Cry.
Marie Domská
Marie Domská (b. 1982) is a qualified teacher who teaches secondary-school English. She started writing fiction aged fifteen. Her literary debut was the fantasy novel Grey Blood / Sivá krev (2023). In recent years she has favoured science fiction; since 2018, her stories have appeared in the periodicals XB-1 and Pevnost and the Mlok anthologies, winning the Karel Čapek Prize several times.
The Kchrat/ Kchrat series begins with the novel Unclear Boundaries / Nejasné hranice (2024), to which Hidden Ultimatum is the follow-up. A third book will appear in spring 2025.
Hidden Ultimatum / Skryté ultimatum
Fragile peace between two very different civilizations is under threat.
Extraterrestrial soldier Kchrat is moved to a spaceship, along with an elite group of human officers who will put him through a programme of special training. The ship will take them to the border dividing the space territories of humans and Shatkhrans, where the first inter-racial base will be established.
After the tumultuous events on Ethernal and Diamond everything is at last set to run perfectly. But there is a stowaway on board. And this stowaway is in possession of records no Shatkhran soldier should see.
What is behind this first contact with humans? And does the Shatkhran queen know anything about it?
From a review in the prestigious genre magazine Pevnost: ‘This book stands up well to international comparison. How great that a SF series of such quality is made in Czechia! How great to be there from the very beginning!’
Petr Kubát (b. 1996) is a writer, a fan of pop culture’s anti-heroes, and a lesser athlete than he would wish. In his everyday life he wears a flight attendant’s uniform and works in an aeroplane cabin. Cyberpunk is his number one genre. Although he likes to experiment, he is currently indulging a weakness for classics of the genre.
Cyberpunk thriller in which drugs and music provide an escape from the traps of virtual reality
Drug-addicted hacker Pat Takeshita unexpectedly collapses on an expedition in cyberspace. Having learned that the cause of her breakdown may be a new cybervirus, she embarks on a harrowing quest to get to the bottom of this creation.
Although his best years are behind him, Deskar Hunter, a captain of military intelligence for Aris, the world’s largest corporation, has a last chance to prove himself on the back of previous successes. He is sent to Paris to investigate an increase in network murders. But his search will lead him to Tokyo.
sci-fi novel
paperback
472 pages
isbn 978-80-275-2240-8 to be
In an illegal digital marketplace, seventeenyear-old Ronnie Luck and a friend find information on a new virus. When the friend dies in unexplained circumstances, Ronnie flees his native Iceland. In the Japanese megapolis he meets a mysterious compatriot, who offers him a job and the possibility of a meeting with the legendary Pat Takeshita.
It will soon dawn on everyone that they are in a game far larger than they could have imagined.
Editor Jiří Štěpán says of the book: ‘Petr Kubát knows how to create a cyberpunk aesthetic. He is unshy of enhancing his SF thriller with smatterings of romance and music fandom.’
to be published
Alena Mornštajnová 820,000 copies sold books published in twenty-four languages (Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Macedonian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish and Vietnamese), rights sold to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Denmark and Lithuania
Kateřina Tučková 440,000 copies sold books published in twenty-one languages (Arabic, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian), rights sold to Finland and Taiwan (traditional Chinese)
Jan Němec
30,000 copies sold
books published in fourteen languages (Arabian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, English, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian and Spanish), rights sold to Armenia
Petra Soukupová
230,000 copies sold
books published in fourteen languages (Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian and Vietnamese), rights sold to Egypt, Lithuania, South Korea and Switzerland (French world rights)
Viktorie Hanišová
55,000 copies sold
books published in eleven languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, German, Italian, Latvian, Macedonian, Polish, Serbian and Spanish, rights sold to Greece and India / England (English world rights)
Jiří Hájíček
120,000 copies sold
books published in thirteen languages (Albanian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, English, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Macedonian, Polish, Slovenian and Ukrainian), rights sold to Egypt, the Netherlands and South Korea
23
Selected backlist
Antonín Bajaja
Burying the Season / Na krásné modré Dřevnici novel; 2009
Patrik Banga
The Real Way Out / Skutečná cesta ven memoir; 2022
Pavel Bareš
Jimmy the Sloth and His Backup Band / Lenochod Jimmy & jeho backup band fantasy novel; 2023
The Cronos Legacy / Kronův odkaz sci-fi novel; 2021
Meta / Meta fantasy thriller; 2020
Children of Cronos / Kronovy děti sci-fi novel; 2019
The Cronos Project / Projekt Kronos sci-fi novel; 2017, 2019
Petra Dvořáková
Wild Cherry Trees / Pláňata novel; 2023
The Garden / Zahrada novel; 2022
Crows / Vrány novella; 2020
The Surgeon / Chirurg novel; 2019, 2020
The Village / Dědina novel; 2018, 2020
Everyone Has a Line to Hold / Každý má svou lajnu children’s book; 2017
The Net / Sítě three short stories; 2016
Flouk and Lila / Flouk a Líla children’s book; 2015
Julie and Words / Julie mezi slovy children’s book; 2013, 2020
I am Hunger / Já jsem hlad non-fiction; 2009, 2013
