Deník rodícího se otce – Tesař Milan (2011)

The relationship between father and son is an eternal theme in literature... In the novel by Milan Tesař, the iconic editor of Reflex magazine, it is presented in various forms. The main one is set in a time when the central character of the book, forty-year-old journalist Simon, is expecting a child, a son, with his wife. A secondary, yet important axis of the story concerns Simon's relationship with his father, an aging guitar virtuoso. There is also a vivid memory of this musician about his own father, who emigrated to Brazil in 1949. The novel unfolds in an atmosphere of tension, tiny shards of humor, and simultaneously sadness, from which journalist Simon is redeemed by the birth of his newborn son. At the same time, the modern history of our country unfolds in the fates of the key characters. Questions of emigration, interrogations in the offices of the StB, and their traces hidden with treacherous testimonies in archives, a Czech perspective on countries far beyond our horizon. The story takes readers to Italy, Brazil, and the United States. Until the very end, the novel is woven with Simon's doubts: Am I, for heaven's sake, expecting another child with my former girlfriend, now a dangerous hysteric? Am I really my father's son, a flamboyant musician? Will my wife give birth to a nice, healthy boy? The resolution is ultimately happy, just as it...