Sudetenland. Paradise Lost

Reviews

"The timeframe for this diverse and thematically and stylistically rich collection of stories extends from the First World War to the 1990s.

They discuss the numerous links between the two ethnic groups (the friendship between Rudiš’s Alois Nebel and a Czech German, the relationship between Petra Dvořáková’s protagonist and a German girl, mixed marriages in the prose works of Michal Vrba and Michaela Klevisová, the members of the boy’s gang in David Jan Žák’s narrative who do not resolve their family origins) and their long coexistence on a common territory (Šumava in Petra Klabouchová’s story as the home of exiles without distinction of language or faith), as well as the fact that ideology and politics drove a wedge between them long before the Nazi occupation (the protagonist in Maria Hajdová’s story, who enlists in the Great War, the outcome of which disperses former comrades-in-arms in Leoš Kyša’s story, and the historical injustices reflected in the life of Kateřina Tučková’s protagonist).

Most of these authors have taken full advantage of the prescribed genre and subject matter: even within their limited space, they have managed to portray their characters in a vivid way, to set them against colourful backdrops, and to play out the unusual plots of compelling stories with them. The most experienced ones have successfully employed tried-and-tested methods: Rudiš has made use of rambling Hrabalesque dialogue, Kyša alias Kotleta action scenes, Žák a child’s perspective, and Tučková a specific “place of memory”. The resulting volume, whose first print-run sold out in no time at all, thus abounds in various shades – here slightly nostalgic, elsewhere (melo)dramatic (especially in Jakub Katalpa’s work), but never black and white."

Petr Nagy Reflex

"If anything is typical of the book’s ten short stories, it is that both the Czechs and the Germans are given an equal share of space and narrative empathy. (...)

In terms of their stylistic skill and distinctiveness, [the individual stories] differ only slightly from one other. And in the end, empathy wins out over sensation every time."

Jonáš Zbořil, Seznam zprávy

"A theme going back to one of the principal Czech historical traumas has recently been raised in an anthology aptly titled Sudetenland: Paradise Lost / Sudety: Ztracený ráj. Give it a chance, and not just because of its beautiful cover, illustrating the areas that were “cleansed” after World War II.

No expense was spared on this book. You can see this at first glance on its cover, from the almost dreamy illustrations (Jaromír 99), the paper used, the graphic design and the blue font... And also on the choice of the ten authors of the individual short stories, who are counted among some of the best contemporary writers, with the exception of one pleasant surprise for me, Michal Vrba.

This is a real gem that has substance. The sophisticated foreword by two erudite historians, Martin Groman and Michal Stehlik, the men behind the Přepište dějiny (Rewrite History) podcast, gives context to everything.

The individual short stories will offer you trips to the Sudetenland as you may not know it. Without grand gestures, injustices, violence and blood. With no regrets at all, they take you through the ordinary lives, loves, traditions, disappointments and tragedies of people whose descendants are mostly no longer living in the Czech Republic because of the expulsion.

They will introduce you to the territories they have inhabited and ennobled for thousands of years, but which were fundamentally different from each other (just like the stories presented here). It will show you a world that was firmly rooted in faith, hard work and a certain predisposition. It will also introduce the uninitiated to the historical context, including the fact that what we Czechs considered to be our right to self-determination, others, i.e.  the Germans, perceived as an injustice, which they actively, sometimes violently, fought against soon after the declaration of Czechoslovakia.

However, everything described here is in a way just the background to the purely individual human fates. What is important is their fragile poetics, set in regions that have lost their soul, history, legends and, most importantly, their inhabitants, who used to be closely connected to the landscape and were usually not among the richest, regardless of whether they lived in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria, Austria-Hungary or Czechoslovakia.

The authors have brought these ordinary fates to life in an engaging way (in fictional form), and notably, they have presented them in a faithful and factual manner. Certainly, thanks to the fact that many of them grew up in the resettled areas (e.g. Jaroslav Rudiš, Leoš Kyša, Kateřina Tučková, Petra Klabouchová and David Jan Žák, to name a few...).

This German heritage has often been stumbled over. Not infrequently it is the “little things”, the tombstones, wayside shrines and orchards that once thrived alongside long-ago demolished buildings in razed villages. Even these details can tell a story if you are able to listen...

The anthology is simply one of those books that are worth reading.

(…)

I also have no doubt that this is one of the best Czech titles of 2025 and beyond."

Lenka Hloušková, Novinky.cz