Kateřina Tučková is a Czech playwright, publicist, biographer, art historian, exhibition curator, and bestselling author of Gerta and The Žítková Goddesses. She has won several literary awards, including the Magnesia Litera Award (for both Gerta and The Žítková Goddesses), the Brno City Award for literature, the Josef Škvorecký Award, and the Czech Bestseller Award. Kateřina is also the recipient of the Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Award by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and of the Premio Libro d’Europa at the Book Fair in Salerno, Italy. Between 2015 and 2018, she was a founder and first president of the Meeting Brno festival, focusing on international and intercultural dialogue. Kateřina Tučková currently lives in Prague and Brno, Czech Republic. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages. Gerta is her first to be translated into English. In December 2020, her novel Bílá Voda will be published in Czech. For more information, visit www.katerina-tuckova.cz/en/.
“The story is an unvarnished chronicle of a young woman doing what
she must to protect herself and her daughter.” —Historical Novel
Society
“I think [Gerta] is beautiful and relevant. One of its basic themes
is the expulsion of the German population from Czechoslovakia after
the Second World War, but as a whole the novel carries a much
broader theme that seems crucial to me today—that the mutual
problems between people and nations will not be solved simply by an
acknowledgment, and not even by an apology. An apology is just the
beginning. We can admit our own guilt, take it on ourselves, but an
even more difficult and important step, which is not spoken of so
much and for which there are no laws or entitlements, is
forgiveness—whether toward others or toward ourselves. For me,
Gerta is a book about forgiveness.” —Alice Nellis, director of the
Czech TV adaptation of Gerta (English translation by Véronique
Firkusny)
Winner of the Magnesia Litera Readers’ award; short-listed for the
Jiří Orten Award, the Josef Škvorecký Award, and Magnesia Litera in
the prose category.
“A great book…Immediately after reading, [Gerta] is
unforgettable…Although she certainly did not plan for it, Kateřina
Tučková wrote a novel that should be required reading.” —Jan
Hübsch, Lidovky
“The central story of Gerta Schnirch can be captured in one word,
the clichéd adjective strong. Its strength lies particularly in its
vivid depiction of frightful experiences immediately after World
War II, experiences resembling terrible nightmares. To achieve
this, the author does not need cheap effects or explicit, detailed,
or shocking descriptions.” —Petr Hrtánek, iLiteratura
“The author describes, with a great writing talent and empathy for
human suffering, Gerta’s life from the moment she stood at her
mother’s grave in 1942…We have read of various anabases, but few
are as dreadful as the one depicted with deep pity by Kateřina
Tučková. And so forcefully described as if she were Gerta,
experiencing it all firsthand.” —Milena Nyklová, Knižní novinky
“[Gerta] masterfully fulfills one of the potential and important
functions of literature. It is a means of self-reflection for a
particular community, which is the Czech nation in this case.”
—Pavel Janoušek, Host
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