Dcery – Dubská Kateřina (2015)

Every family has its skeletons in the closet, and the less they are talked about, the more they rattle their bones to get attention. In her second novel, the author tells the story of four generations of her own family, moving the plot from Slovácko to Prague and Northern Bohemia. Initially, the large, close-knit family is able to face the impacts of historical twists in Czech history together, which tragically marks the fates of some of its members. The bearers of the family's strength are women, Josef's daughters, but as their own marriages and originally strong family ties begin to crumble, they fatefully lose this strength. A dark thread weaves through the book, questioning the relationships between women, who seem too strong, and men, who seem too weak, as well as the awareness that one tragic moment in the life of the first generation can mark the lives of those yet to be born, and that people themselves pass on their wounds further and further. The colorful mosaic of stories of parents, children, and grandchildren will not let readers breathe with its sometimes brutally energetic narrative, yet it offers hope that even the heaviest family history burdened by silence and secrets can be borne and managed, and above all, not passed on to future generations.