Poslední útěk Adama Drechslera – Pehe Jiří (2021)

The publicly known intellectual and writer Adam Drechsler senses that he will soon succumb to a serious illness, and he sets off on his last journey across the ocean. However, on the plane, he meets a girl who might give his departure a new direction. In Jiří Pehe's slightly mystifying 'autobiographical' novel, the narrator takes us through the personal history of a Czech emigrant via a conversation between two people standing at opposite ends of their life journeys, reflecting the history of our country over the last more than half a century. We follow his dramatic escape through then-Yugoslavia, life in New York, work for Radio Free Europe in Munich, and finally, his back-and-forth between his homeland and America. Alongside the classic theme of the uprooted exile who has lost his original home and never truly found a new one, there is the painful loss of a lifelong love with which the protagonist never came to terms. However, this is just one line of the narrative. While young doctoral student Natálie is eager for details about Adam's life because she would like to write a book about him, he unsuccessfully tries to convince her that not only his life but also his work will soon fade into nothingness. He reflects skeptically on the futility of human actions and the impossibility of understanding and knowing the external world. He also ironically considers those who...