Včely v klobouku - Povídky o zázracích běžných dnů (2026)

This Czech-language collection of stories follows people who once dreamed of becoming presidents, refuse collectors, Robin Hood or astronauts, but instead became clerks, journalists and workers who meet again after forty years over an empty pint glass. František Kašpárek takes readers through a world where the boundary between a pub in Brno and deep space is thinner than they dare admit. The stories feature absurd battles with virtual operators who drive people to suicide, unexpected encounters with extraterrestrials seeking ordinary human hope rather than raw materials, generational divides, marital episodes and fateful friendships. Characters from Karl May novels and shadows of historical conspiracies quietly move through the narratives, while an angel with one wing and Baron Munchausen in a hot-air balloon take the stories from humour to unease. With sharp wit and touching honesty, the author suggests that life itself writes the greatest story. The collection asks what a purchase of bread with headcheese has to do with a crisis of trust between a person and a dog, why the command to hang oneself becomes the only way to defeat a multinational corporation’s insensitive artificial intelligence, and what a future legendary musician discovers in a remote Scottish cottage that changes the course of human history.