2024-10-01 10:58:18
The writer Tereza Boučková will present her new book entitled Dům v Matoušová ulica in Prague this Wednesday. In it, he searches for the fate of the Jewish residents of one building during the 20th century.
Jewish lawyer Eduard Schwarz bought the house in 1927 for himself and his family. The writer lived there from birth to adulthood and returned there again a few years ago. In prose, he presents the stories of Schwarz’s descendants and other residents.
The cover of the novel The House in Matoušova Street. | Photo: Odeon publishing house
The celebration of the release of the book, which was published by the Odeon publishing house, decided to connect with the laying of the so-called stones of the disappeared. These are cobblestones with a brass surface inserted into the pavement in front of the houses of victims of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime.
“I initiated the laying of Stolperstein after I discovered the fate of the residents and owners of our house who ended up in a concentration camp,” explains Tereza Boučková.
The Wednesday event will start directly at Matoušova 12 in Prague’s Smíchov. “Descendants of murdered fellow Jews will also be present. With the Mishpacha ensemble, we will sing a beautiful song that fits the commemoration. Then we will move a few steps from the house in Matoušova Street to the park in front of the Portheimka Gallery and cafe, where we will sing and celebrate the publication of the book, ” adds the author.
The 67-year-old writer and screenwriter writes about people whom the Nazis and Communists wanted to humiliate, rob, imprison or murder. And they, each in their own way, tried to resist fate or run away from it.
Boučková portrays the destinies of ordinary people against the background of great history. “There, I tried to capture the paradox of the times of Nazism and Communism. Of course, I was looking for a way to write the destinies that I searched for quite a long time and with difficulty, because I am not a historian. You have a certain amount of facts and human stories at your disposal, but then she has to write in such a way that the reader lives with those people and does not put the book down. That is a matter of literary skill, which I have probably worked on over the years,” she hopes.
The war in Ukraine, last year’s tragic shooting at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague and the terrorist attack on Israel by the Palestinian movement Hamas also wedged into the story of the residents of the house in Matoušova Street.
Due to her family background, Tereza Boučková could not study under communism, after the signing of Charter 77 she worked as a cleaner, packer, postman or housekeeper. In 1990, she received the Jiří Orten Award for her first book, Indian Run, describing the environment of dissent.
Back in the 90s, the short prose stories Quail and When You Love a Man followed, and in the new millennium, for example, the short story book Crazy Sad Stories. The library published three journalistic committees called Just to get dry – feuilletons about men and people, God’s and other torment – feuillets about love for the bike and Race against time – 99 fastest feuilletons.
In 2008, her autobiographical novel Year of the Rooster became the best-selling Czech book of the year. Boučková also wrote the scripts for the films Smradi and Zemský raj to pohled.
Video: Adopted son hit rock bottom because of drugs, I’m not reconciled to that, says Boučková (December 29, 2016)
Maybe I opened up too much to readers, but in retrospect I didn’t regret it, said Tereza Boučková in 2016 in DVtv. | Video: Daniela Drtinová