Bleděmodrý králíček – Novotná Kristina (2024)

Kristina Novotná, the author of the biographical book about her mother titled Encounters with Irena Kačírková, her friends, enemies, and other animals (2015), has now written a collection of short stories that blur the line between reality and fantasy. One could say that the leitmotif of all fourteen short stories is desire. Sometimes a naive, even foolish desire for fame, beauty, wealth, but also for love, friendship, knowledge, and understanding. And they also include dreams, fulfilled and unfulfilled wishes, often leading down the wrong path. The character either chooses this path themselves or fate imposes the direction they take. This often results in an ambiguous resolution of the story. Between the lines, one can read the author's critical stance towards the state of today's society (for example, regarding the falseness of reality shows, artificial 'magazine' outer beauty, invasion of human privacy, exploitation of man by man, arrogance of power, etc.). And what are those dogs doing there? They long to protect us. Are they sometimes more human than we are?