Outcasts of Life

Summer begins on the western edge of the Vysočina region, in the Železné hory (Iron Mountains). Three friends who grew up here grapple with their problems in a languid timelessness that seemingly leads to no resolution. They face progressing alcohol dependency, troubles with women and the law, an inability to say goodbye to their teenage children, and, in fact, an inability to grow up themselves. However, the old institutions of rural life are also under threat: the former agricultural cooperative and the dwindling Evangelical congregation, which for the three friends is now just a reminder of their ancestors' ancient traditions. The protagonist, Jan Chlumecký, tries to do something about it all, but at the same time, he is seized by the fear that the old world is disappearing and he cannot stop it.

Zuzana Kaiserová was born in 1980 in Prague. She studied journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University and Jewish-Christian Studies at Anglia Ruskin University. She worked as an investigative reporter for MF DNES. In 2018, she published her first novel, Kalandrova dcera (Kalandra's Daughter). She has two children.