Úlice

Reviews

"If there is any Czech writer whose talent I would like to have, it is her. Her Úlice grabs you and carries you away like a train passing through this fictional town of hers during World War II. Katalpa crafts every sentence, expresses herself sparingly, and every single word has its place."

Veronika Scattergood, Harper’s Bazaar

 

"Readers familiar with Jakuba Katalpa’s previous works will find what they love about them in her latest book –  the evocativeness of the language and a strong human and dramatic story from Czech history."

Irena Hejdová, Deník N

 

"The end of the world smells of honey, but the stench of death cannot be covered up even by expensive gifts. It cannot be sweated out through sex or jogging – it cannot be expunged with drugs. There are countless ways people can destroy (themselves).

How many times has someone asked whether the world would be better off if women ruled it? But then sometimes women can’t even control themselves – or they can’t control each other. Especially when it comes down to love: and it always comes down to love. As well as life.

At the end of a hideous war that has forgotten the value of life, what could be more precious than a new life? To love a child is a desire so strong that it overcomes even the hatred of Nazi officers and their mistresses towards Jews. Better a child from a Jewish woman than not to be a parent.

The novel Úlice, which the author herself calls a love story in the subtitle, is about love,  scents, home, decisions, and absence. Men are absent. So much so that they are not there, they are forever missing somewhere, or they are missing something. They are not whole. Women are the ones who act. They may look weak, they may seem to be dragged along by men’s decisions, but they are the ones who remain in a world where nothing is whole, where trains and the sky creak like metal, the entire town becomes a grave from which a new child is born. Whose is it? Who does it belong to and who should it belong to? Should mistakes be punished when the world has gone mad? And who has the right to do so? This story has already happened, but the questions keep coming. As is the case with good stories."

Kateřina Surmanová, Lidové noviny Book of the Year 2025 survey, 5th–9th place

 

"Readers are going to feel cognitive dissonance from the novel Úlice, just as they did when the book was described as “perfect kitsch” and accused of being misery porn.

The contradiction that gives rise to these judgments is based on the fact that the “honey town” of Úlice, which is also home to a concentration camp, with which the three central protagonists willy-nilly come into some kind of contact, exhibits the same degree of small-town harmony as it does unprecedented violence. I'm not the only one who while reading was reminded of Jonathan Glazer’s film Zone of Interest (2023), in which we again don’t look beyond the walls of the camp, but remain in the neat world of those who keep it running with painstaking diligence.

Unlike many historical novels with female martyr heroines, the inhabitants of Úlice are characterized by an unprecedented level of action, although this moves them “beyond good and evil”, where they employ specific female strategies of survival, and ultimately solidarity – albeit in the male world of war and mass violence. The author’s style also exhibits dissonantly effective features, combining unsophisticated plot agility and causality with expressiveness, especially in descriptions of physicality. Something of a splatterpunk Six Bullerby Children and definitely one of the most interesting novels this year."

Eva Klíčová, Deník Alarm.cz

 

"Katalpa manages to effectively build up the plot, working with potent suspense within short chapters – she uses economical sentences, sometimes with a single word per line, thus compelling you to read on and on. She mercilessly entangles the characters in a web of relationships from which they cannot escape and which are devastating for all parties as a result. (…) It can be a gripping read about the limits of human tolerance for violence and the moments when you stop just tolerating violence, but start committing it yourself."

Kamila Drahoňovská, Iliteratura.cz

 

"Jakuba Katalpa, one of the most talented Czech fiction writers since 2000, famous for such novels as Zuzana’s Breath / Zuzanin dech and Germans / Němci, has written perhaps her best book yet.

Katalpa does not judge [the three chief protagonists]. Quite the reverse, she shows the delicate fabric of connections and psychological threads that stretch through time and space, across borders and generations, from individual to individual.

(…)

Katalpa writes figuratively, poetically, magically. She can sensitively build a personality profile, a situation, and the overall atmosphere of the narrative. Vivid, urgent, tangible. Her language is sensual and even animalistic, naturally connecting the physical with the metaphysical, the physical with the spiritual, everything with everything."

Radim Kopáč, MF Dnes

 

"The author does not judge her characters. That is not her job.

Her narrative style, based on the contrast between the calm of everyday life and the horrors of war, highlights the tension and emotional dimension of the novel. None of the female protagonists of Úlice are black and white. Their decisions are complicated because the pressure of circumstances does not allow for an ideal choice. This forces readers to think about what they would do in those three women’s shoes.

(…)

Úlice is not only based on the strong motif of war and the fates of the three female protagonists who struggle with the challenging daily reality and with themselves. What makes the novel an extraordinary reading experience is above all the language that the author skilfully uses. She weaves a thread from it that runs through the entire story. It is tangible, alive, magical."

Alena Pecháčková, Publico

 

"The author is able to kindle poetry and beauty even as she walks through the darkness of history."

Kristýna Skalníková, Novinky.cz