Zástava dechu – Koudelková Jesenská Lucie (2025)

The novel vividly and multilayeredly resonates with the contemporary societal theme of how to be a good mother. The whirlwind of events during a single day in the life of a mother of two small children, amidst tender moments of parental love, heightened conflicts, and utter exhaustion, is accompanied by metaphors and images of a time when women walked the world with exposed breasts and drank water from springs, in short, a time when motherhood was not just the role of the mother but of the entire community, long before the plastic jungle and playgrounds.
Alongside the vivid images of playing beasts, primordial times, and the swelling bodies of new mothers, the prose brings forth reflections on division, emptiness, and missing desire, as well as themes of upbringing, family circle, fear and anxiety, bodily boundaries, or unsolicited advice. And above all, countless questions and perspectives in the search for answers. Can you be a good mother even if you slap your child?

About the author:

Lucie Koudelková Jesenská (1984) studied for a bachelor's degree in Social Policy and Social Work at the Faculty of Social and Economic Studies of the J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. She left her subsequent psychology studies after the third year and traveled and worked abroad for several years (Scotland, Wales, India, America, ...)