Čím si procházíš – Nunez Sigrid (2026)

A novel about friendship, empathy and coming to terms with human mortality. The middle-aged narrator, a writer, meets again after many years with a journalist friend from her former magazine workplace, who is facing an incurable illness. At her request, the narrator stays close to her during her final days. This framework gradually opens into a mosaic of encounters and conversations with people who each seek their own way of understanding the world and themselves. Sigrid Nunez presents an almost philosophical dialogue, highlighting the absurdity of a world that does not allow suffering people to leave the overcrowded planet voluntarily, as well as humanity’s evasiveness in systematically moving towards suffering and destruction. Her economical, precise language, gentle humour and detachment transform a serious subject into a lively text. This remarkable and exceptionally cultivated introspective prose confronts readers with universal questions of human existence, offering a contemporary view of accompanying another person towards the end of life, friendship and a dignified death, naturally and without pathos. The book has received many awards and inspired The Room Next Door (2024), a film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.