Straka na šibenici

The hero lives with his alcoholic father in a decaying house on the edge of a forgotten town in the once German north of Bohemia. Clever enough to learn to read before his peers set foot in school, he is nevertheless held by his father's twisted idea of upbringing in an almost medieval ignorance, peopled by phantoms and demons. Born an outsider by family and by place, he goes on to pay off other people's old debts with his own life while trying, perhaps for the first time, to find himself. Everyday practicality and a dreamlike sense of fate alternate in a story named after Bruegel's painting, in which a child notices the bird and an adult sees only the gallows.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

263 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Czechia

First published

2015 by Host

Author's age

40 when first published

ISBN

9788074915000 (original)