Zešílet v divočině – Palán Aleš (2025)

In his new novel, Aleš Palán refers by its title to the bestseller Raději zešílet v divočině, a collection of interviews with Šumava’s hermits. This time, readers again travel with him to Šumava, to an alternative setting: a remote mountain home without electricity or an access road, where a family of five lives. Relations with the outside world are sometimes strained, but the real drama begins when the daughter, Kateřina, is forced to start school. From her very first day, she experiences crushing contempt. She refuses to become a victim, however, and responds as she has been taught at home. Mutual prejudices quickly deepen, while love, both parental and romantic, gradually turns into the need to control another person. “Whoever says the strongest instinct is sexual only reveals that they have never fought,” Kateřina knows. This Czech-language story of solitude, alliances and betrayal is a drama set in an idyllic mountain landscape, where those who are most uncompromising are defeated—in other words, everyone. Aleš Palán (born 1965 in Jihlava) is a writer and journalist and a two-time recipient of the Magnesia Litera award. His interview book Raději zešílet v divočině won the Lidové noviny Book of the Year poll. In 2025, director Miro Remo made a documentary of the same name, which received the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.