A tale of fire and ashes

Petr Motýl is one of those authors for whom the words seem to flow effortlessly. The story of fire and ash unfolds untamed, and the reader is constantly refreshed by beautiful
expressions from the Ostrava and Frýdek-Místek dialects. Motýl takes us to the very beginning of the twentieth century and, in this concise prose, stages
a conflict between two ways of life – one connected to the city, where the steel industry is booming, and another rooted in the mountains, in nature. The main
protagonist, Anton Rechtman, is a foreman at an open-hearth furnace in the Karlova steelworks, while his beloved, Tereza Foldynová, comes from the mountains above Staré Hamry. Motýl also
skilfully incorporates Petr Bezruč's beautiful ballad, Maryčka Magdonova. One gladly becomes 'the reader whom Petr Bezruč has buried deep within his poem,
so deep that the reader can no longer breathe.'