The Story of a Stray Bullet

Kubík's new novel is set in a small Czech town with a large German minority, from the end of the Second World War to the expulsion of the Germans. The reader witnesses the flight of the German army and the arrival of the Red Army in May 1945, the activities of the revolutionary guards, the struggle for political power, and the retaliation against the Germans up to their displacement. The author weaves these events together through the specific fates of individuals in a dramatic crime plot. The main storyline unfolds when a group of revolutionary guardsmen, who are in reality self-serving adventurers and collaborators, murder the former German mayor and force employees of the local brickyard to burn the body.

The main protagonist, Jindřich Klemsa, a man in his thirties who became the national administrator of the brickyard shortly after the war, is also drawn into the case. His character is put to numerous tests during this turbulent period. Against the backdrop of major historical moments and in the whirlwind of radical political changes, he wants to maintain a clear conscience and prevent injustice. He also faces a dilemma in his personal life. His lover Irena's husband was taken to Germany for forced labour, and now the two lovers fear his possible return…

The author vividly captures major historical moments that intertwine with the dramatic personal fates of the individual heroes, influencing them and shaping their decisions and characters. This adventure novel with a crime plot depicts a short, yet crucial, period in the direction of our history.

Lubomír Kubík (born 1945) has been publishing shorter and longer stories for young people in the spirit of Foglar in magazines since the 1960s, as well as articles on historical topics, especially from the First and Second World Wars. In 1991, his newspaper reports were serialised under the title Tomáš Baťa, a Legend of Modern Business. So far, he has published the novel The Hilsner Affair (1992), in which he captured how this historically famous event was reflected in the thinking and actions of the inhabitants of Polná; the study The Těšín Conflict (2001) about the armed conflict and disputes between Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1919–1920; and the documentary photographic publication The Second World War 1939–40 (1995). The PROSTOR publishing house released his novel about the assassination of Heydrich, Why Gabčík Didn't Shoot, in 2006, followed by a biographical novel about Jaroslav Foglar, Jestřáb's Flight (2009), and a prose work from the occupation period, Land of Rats (2012).