Rekonstrukce – Hanišová Viktorie (2019)

Surviving doesn't mean living. "I was born when I was nine years old, ten months, and seven days," begins Eliška, the heroine of the novel Reconstruction. Eliška now resides in the quiet house of her bitter aunt, and her life seems to interest no one. Or at least that's how it appears, judging by the cautious reactions of those around her. Eliška was born from a murder. Her mother killed her younger brother and then herself. Until then, they had led an average life, in which nothing hinted at the impending tragic events. No farewell letter was found, and witnesses of the last day of the silent mother with her child noticed nothing significant. As a result, Eliška grows up with a decade of emptiness instead of childhood, which she decides to clarify in adulthood. Why did her mother do it? And why didn't she take her with her...? The third novel by the successful writer Viktorie Hanišová is about the allure of empty spaces, about the seduction of falling into darkness. Sometimes it takes little, like the effort to find life's balance — and a person suddenly finds themselves teetering over the abyss.