Česká krása - Banální příběh ženy středního věku – Šedo Leoš (2015)

In his fourth book, the novel Czech Beauty, the prose writer and dentist Leoš Šedo returns to the medical environment after ten years. The story of his fictional colleague and peer Eva is a micro-probe into 'typical' mainstream family life, with a detailed depiction of interpersonal relationships and a sense for historical detail that records the vicissitudes of the Czech nation swept by the so-called 'great history' from the sixties to the present. The heroes of the novel feel as if we have known them intimately for a long time - they are so believable, brilliantly captured, and above all intertwined with our life experiences. Šedo has succeeded in the novel in showing the transformations of social moods, contemporary 'discourses,' and changing mainstream political and social themes, but also with extraordinary skill in capturing the recurring patterns of family relationships that we all know from our own experiences. Czech Beauty is a gripping, readable, extraordinarily impactful, and accessible novel about recent Czech history and the most contemporary present.