Všichni jsou trapný – Bohatá Simona (2019)

The joys and sorrows of Prague's Žižkov during normalization. Teenagers Bóža and Růža can't stand to be apart. Martin doesn't talk to anyone and is as mysterious as a castle in the Carpathians. The girls tease each other and compete in awkwardness — or so the boys think. Except that they would also like to have something with the girls. Like Šimona — she even has a video at home! They are all from the same class and, under the supervision of teacher Jura, are somehow trying to grow up. Set against the backdrop of Žižkov in the 1980s. They only go to Prague on rare occasions — Žižkov is a world unto itself, Prague is a big world. The StB agents, prostitutes, and currency traders may cross borders in both directions, but children, cripples, and abused animals are only at home in Žižkov. Simona Bohatá comes out with a novel that has a distinct atmosphere. The setting is the periphery, the time is the timelessness of normalization, and the main characters are children. The language is the lively Prague dialect, the speech of passages, courtyards, and balconies. From the fragmentary structure of the narrative, an image of a peculiar world gradually emerges, one that has almost disappeared today. However, little is further from this novel than some kind of normalization nostalgia. The novel Everyone is Awkward is a sharp prose from a time when it was all too easy to destroy someone's life. And especially your own.