Tři tatínci a maminka – Šrut Pavel (2010)

In the beginning, there was the word of the publisher, who wished to publish a book of stories about magical beings among us. The idea for three writers to meet over the assignment and for those magical beings to be mothers went hand in hand with the first. Initially, it seemed that each of the invited authors would write their own story for children from the perspective of a father telling his own offspring about their mother. However, our fathers, Pavel Šrut, Michal Viewegh, and Martin Reiner, quickly elevated their ambitions, finding the theme too simple. They found it more appealing for there to be just one mother in the stories... Actually, not just a mother, but also one uncle, and the whole family around which their narratives revolve. Thus, three stories emerged, capturing the same mother at different stages of life. The book, which presents a surprisingly cohesive whole, was perfected by Galina Miklínová with her graphic design and illustrations. You can see it as a successful collective literary experiment, or as a loose collection of stories balancing on the edge between the world of children and the world of adults. But above all, you can be assured that if you read it aloud to your children or acquaintances, you will not bore them for a second.