In her fourth book, author Alice Horachkova returns to the picturesque Czech-German village in the first half of the 20th century and weaves her “family” out of stories, memories, and archival records. It is inspired by his split family. After 1945, part of her relatives was moved away, and the other part remained. This week, you can play for Rozpólený dům in the iROZHLAS.cz server’s regular book competition.
Win the book Half House by Alice Horáčková | Photo: iROZHLAS.cz | Source: Czech Radio
“Dear Zdina, I was very happy to hear from you again. I hope you can read it, I can’t write Czech very well anymore,” Annika wrote in the letter. The writer describes her in the introduction as a woman who is neither young nor old. It’s hard to know where aging begins for someone who has been feeling old for too long.
Book reviews
“Rózpolený dům’s novel reads in one breath as an interesting historiography. Czech and German were spoken in the Krkonoše Mountains, family destinies met, mingled and intersected here. All this can be felt through this extraordinary book. The name can conjure up something broken or missing. But the opposite is true. Thanks to this extraordinary book, the broken past comes together and creates a plastic and complete picture of it.“- jaroslav rudich
“We are so bad here. Nothing belongs to us, nobody wants us, we are all ‘Ausgewiesene.’ The Germans say we are Bimas,” describes Annika. “If only we could go home again, that’s what we’d still live for. It’s not nice here in Bavaria, there’s almost nothing to eat and you can’t buy clothes or even an inch of cloth. And these people are terrible.”
The Split House tells the story of liberated women, hunters, textile merchants, and spirits from the village of Sudet. Czechs and Germans live here in mixed marriages, but they also argue about which nationality someone takes during the census, who should build a new school first, and who killed their dog, Masaryk. At the same time, it is performed by Jednota severočeská on the one hand and Deutscher Kulturverband on the other.
It’s a story about secret love, elopement, grievances, name and nickname changes and frog wars that ultimately take lives.
Horachkova has been weaving a wonderful “family novel” for more than four years. It was based on family stories, memories, and archive records. During the research, she discovered more than she would have liked: among other things, the fact that one of her ancestors became the organizer of a Jewish factory and a friend of Reinhard Heydrich.
She admits that her relatives tried to erase the war period from their memory. She described it as “not much talked about at home.” In the Na dotek . podcast.
Competition rules
Read the general rules of the book competition with the news server iROZHLAS.cz
Alice Horakova graduated from Charles University’s School of Social Sciences. She sold German authors in a Prague bookstore, wrote interviews and literary reviews for Mf Dnes, published scientific discoveries at the Academy of Sciences, and spent a crucial year in Berlin.
She made her debut with Vladimíra Čerepková’s autobiographical book – Beatnik femme fatale, for which he was nominated for the Josef Škvorecký Prize and the Magnesia Litera Prize for Discovery of the Year. In her second book, I interviewed Evan M. This was followed by a fictional confession titled Unopened Letters, inspired by the true story of Alina T. , widow of a well-known artist.
The novel Rozpúlený dům is published by Argo Publishing, and the publication is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
If you would like to enter the 10 House in Half novel competition, please email us by 6pm on Friday, September 9 at soutez.irozhlas@rozhlas.cz Answer the following question:
What is the name of the Czech poet, whose life and work Alice Horachkova captured in her first book?
Include your answer:
- name and surname
- Title in case you win
- Phone or email
The iROZHLAS.cz server will draw the winner from the correct answers, and everyone can participate only once in a given round. You can read more at Grammar.
