Dítě světla – Brooks-Dalton Lily (2025)

This Czech-language near-future story about hope, survival and resilience follows Wanda, a radiant child born during a devastating hurricane, as she navigates a rapidly changing world. Florida is disappearing as destructive weather and rising sea levels slowly destroy the state’s infrastructure, while a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Power-line repairman Kirby Lowe, his pregnant wife Frida and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys disappear just before the hurricane strikes, Kirby sets out into the violent winds to find them. Alone, Frida gives birth prematurely to Wanda, named after the catastrophic storm that brings her into a society closer to collapse than ever before. Divided into four sections—energy, water, light and time—the book reflects the rhythm of the elements and the disappearance of the world we know, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. It is a meditation on changes we would rather not see, a future we would rather not welcome, and the beauty and violence of untamed wilderness.