A polished collection of short stories about the turbulent fates of South Bohemia from the winner of the 2019 Czech Book Award
? Light from Pauline, a captivating short story cycle, in which the characters' fates intertwine across time, space and dreams, again present Jan Štifter as a skilled writer of shorter prose works, that will stay in the reader's mind for a long time, despite their scope.
This is the world, so live! There's nothing to wait for - what you don't catch will escape, what you don't smell will wither. Even the charming South Bohemian village of Paulina has been swallowed by the forest, trees instead of chimneys tower up to the sky and there is a grave silence everywhere. However, something of the old world has survived: stories, names and ancient decisions that affect our present. Moved human destinies are not only a journey, but also a gateway to the past, a recognition of what has been and must not be forgotten.
However, the interconnected themes of the children stand out clearly throughout the book, childhood and parenthood, which Štifter views with tenderness, by desire, melancholy, but also a responsibility. The diversity of Štifter's style is best shown in the elaborate characters, who sometimes remind us of the lonely protagonists of Balabán's stories, sometimes of Sebald's melancholic uprooted men or Barnes' elderly heroes ready to face the past at last.
Book database rating 90%.
