Byt - Román ve dvou (2026)

An experimental contemporary novel follows Daniel, who owns an apartment in Tábor but works in Prague and returns home only at weekends, and Zuzana, who has left her boyfriend and cannot afford much, so she welcomes the chance to rent the apartment on weekdays. The two are connected only by the space they each inhabit in their own way, and that same space keeps them apart. He cares for his dying father, while the care required at the edges of life always falls to her. His heart feels heavy; she has a murmur in her brain. These are two contemporary stories that touch and yet pass one another by, two monologues that can become a dialogue only through the reader. Jana Šrámková and Jan Němec have found an unusual way to write a book together and separately at the same time. The result is an original novel that can be read from either side, or in alternating sections. This is not merely a literary game, however, but a fateful choice: the direction in which the novel is read determines nothing less than Daniel’s and Zuzana’s futures. Is life ultimately a palindrome? Daniel says, “A lion sleeps in an ellipse.” Zuzana replies, “By the ear, in the moss.”