Sometimes, halfway through the race, you forget why you're even competing.
Life sometimes comes to a halt. Whether the reason is the awareness of death, a personal failure, lost illusions or simple fear, anxiety, doubts and questions inevitably follow. These are moments that force you to contemplate your own existence in a clear light, a light that is often unkind to social conventions and the idea of “being like everyone else”. And what it does favour seems at once terrifying, captivating, and tempting…
After three novels, prose writer Viktorie Hanišová explores the more subtle and concise space of the short story. These thematically linked, fast-paced texts are like well-intentioned slaps in the face: they hurt, but they'll wake you up.Just like the protagonists of the short stories in Dlouhá trať, the reader must stop more than once and ask themselves: What is the point of all this? It may not be pleasant, but once you start, there's no going back. And the same can be said for Dlouhá trať. It may not be anything pretty—but you can't stop reading.
