Zmizet - 2. vydání – Soukupová Petra (2011)

Intimate family or partner relationships have traditionally been the domain of women's and girls' romances. Higher literature seems to shy away from this topic, perhaps even recoiling a bit. The greater the attention it draws when an author can handle it in a non-obvious, unsentimental, and unconventional way. Petra Soukupová succeeded in this right from her first book titled To the Sea. Even in her new collection of three extensive stories, family relationships are the main theme. This time, however, the author chose to stylize a child protagonist. In the first two texts, children are the narrators of the story, while in the third, the narrator is an adult woman, but the focus is on her memories of childhood. In all the stories, the protagonists struggle to cope with a certain family trauma that distances them from their loved ones, forcing them to search for identity and a place within the family. However, it is not about dramatic film twists that would turn the protagonists' lives upside down; the essence takes place within the characters' inner worlds. Yet the author manages to draw the reader into this very intimate space to such an extent that they can share even the subtlest internal movements and perceive them as real existential dramas. This seems somewhat paradoxical, as the language of the narrative rather alienates the topic and records it with a seemingly cold eye...