Kolej Today – Doležalová Martina (2012)

The short story collection Kolej Today, whose title alludes to the cult song Kolej Yesterday by Michal Prokop, contains 18 stories primarily from the Prague student environment, where students, teachers, drivers, lawyers, doctors, and others meet more or less randomly to share stories from life as it is, without embellishments and without hesitation. The individual stories are connected by the character of Veronika, a bilingual student from France, born to a Czech writer and a French organist, who, after years spent in the tranquil countryside of southern France, decides to move to the metropolis in the heart of Europe to discover her mother's roots. Veronika collects stories from her acquaintances and friends, creates some, and transforms others, so the book you hold in your hands can be considered, on a certain level, her work, in which she aims to highlight some of the issues of today's world: mental illness, the fragility of romantic relationships, divorce and its consequences, violence, general indifference, the superficial understanding of the integration of individuals with disabilities, and last but not least, the confusion of more sensitive and perceptive young people, which can lead to the search for true happiness or intentional self-destruction.