- Magnesia Litera 2006 · Winner
Rustic Baroque
Selský baroko
Jiří Hájíček (born 1967)
Translated by Gale A. Kirking
English editions
In EnglishRustic Baroque
Real World Press · Czechia · 2012 · Paperback · 200 pages
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Pavel Straňanský makes a living as a genealogist, digging through archives to draw up pedigrees, usually for well-to-do émigrés curious about where they come from. One summer he accepts a well-paid commission he would rather refuse: to identify the woman who, in the 1950s, informed on farmers from the South Bohemian village of Tomašice and sent them to prison during collectivisation. At the heart of the old story is a village beauty, Rozálie Zandlová. Pavel pieces it together from parish chronicles and the recollections of old villagers, gets to know a striking young woman with motives of her own, and finds that his near-detective investigation reaches into the present and leaves him facing questions of guilt, revenge and forgiveness.
AI-generated summary
About the book
- Form
- Novella
- Length
- 175 pages in the original
- Genres
- Historical, Crime (assigned by AI)
- Set in
- Czechia, 1950s, 2000s
- First published
- 2005 by Host
- Author's age
- 38 when first published
- ISBN
9788072941643 (original)
9788090535718 (Real World Press, Czechia)