So much ash

Ondřej Štindel's new novel, entitled Tolik aspela, offers in abundance, what we already know from the author's previous three prose works - spoken with Czech literary reviewers, "Štindl is an excellent storyteller with an unmistakable style" (Reflex), characterised by "an unusual richness and imagery of language" (Deník N), whose stories are always built "with an internal logic, and yet with surprising twists, with compositional purity and functionality of all components" (Respekt). The novel's protagonist, Kryštof, an aging writer and translator, suddenly and actually against his will finds himself at a crossroads in his life when, under somewhat awkward circumstances, he first meets a young leftist intellectual, Kristýna, and not long afterwards Kamil, the guru of a bizarre sect strangely connected to Kryštof's deceased sister. The emerging pandemic is transforming the world, as he knew her, and makes the possibility of his end more present - and perhaps even Christopher himself is heading towards a "personal apocalypse", accompanied by melancholy, grotesque, with intrusive memories and dark forebodings. He becomes a hesitant actor in a story of great revelation or cruel cosmic joke. Or a love story. < br> < br> The publication of the book was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.