Svatojánské ořechy – Chalupová Lenka (2023)

People were drawn to that house – and at the same time, it terrified them. In its garden grew ancient walnut trees, which were never allowed to release their fruit in its shell at the time of ripeness. For the Dluhonice family, the St. John's house was cursed. "It's against God," they crossed themselves, "to knock unripe walnuts from the branches... It's like beating a premature baby from its mother's womb. A sin, just a sin!" But Juliana Paukrtová, with her son Hanuš and granddaughter Vilemíná, knew no other way. Just like all their ancestors, on St. John's Day, they picked green walnuts from all the trees and tossed them into barrels. However, the years 1958 and 1959 would bring dramatic changes. Thirteen-year-old Vilemíná must cope with a new life path, transitioning from carefree childhood to the world of adult worries within a single year and fighting for her place. Is her mother Albína, a capable agitator for the agricultural cooperative, to blame for the burdensome situation in the family, disliked by locals for her tarnished past of collaboration with the Nazis? Or is it all the fault of that cursed St. John's house? Lenka Chalupová's gripping novel loosely follows the successful titles Sour Cherries and The Fifth Apple, thus completing the trilogy set in post-war Přerov.