Vltavice
Audiobook
Vltavice
A novel about people and places swept away by the 20th century
The surface of the Lipno reservoir hides more than just silent depths. Beneath the water lies the remains of Dolní Vltavice, a village that had a church, a school, and a cemetery. Two timelines intertwine, revealing the fates of those who lost their homes and themselves. Behind a barred window, ten-year-old Dor shouts that one day fish will swim here. Over a hundred years later, sixty-year-old Ema refuses to let the past of Dolní Vltavice drown. Love, envy, and fragile closeness – the water cannot drown these things, only silence them for a time. What remains when a place disappears from the map?
Jan Štifter
Jan Štifter (born 1984) graduated in cultural history from the University of Pardubice. He worked on the editorial teams of MF DNES and Lidové noviny, and was editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine MF Sedmička. In 2013, he founded the lifestyle magazine Barbar! His novel 'Sběratel sněhu' (The Snow Collector) won several awards, including the Czech Book Readers' Prize, and his novella 'Café Groll' was adapted by the South Bohemian Theatre. He has also published a book of short stories, 'Světlo z Pauliny' (Light from Paulina), and a rural novel chronicle, 'Paví hody' (Peacock Feast), with the Vyšehrad publishing house. Besides prose, he focuses on non-fiction texts, primarily concerning the southernmost region of Bohemia. He organises the 'Svinenské čtení' (Sviny Reading) literary festival in Trhové Sviny. He lives in České Budějovice with his family; he and his wife Eva have four children.
