Three women, three generations, one family, and many life twists, traumas and secrets
The story begins before the First World War, when Anna, the narrator's grandmother, leaves for a border town in northern Bohemia with her chosen Antonín, against her parents' wishes. It is as if the first letter of their names expresses the hope that here, they can start a new life together. However, the name also symbolises what we cannot choose, what is given to us as a family legacy that we always carry with us, despite all our determination to change. Or perhaps it is fate, over whose trials we have very little influence.
The new beginning soon turns into a struggle for survival when Antonín is wounded on the front and Anna develops tuberculosis. A quarter of a century later, a different new beginning awaits their daughter, Alžběta, who must flee from the German army occupying the borderlands. After another half a century, a dramatic twist of fate—this time in the form of an StB officer—also changes the life of the story's narrator, Anežka.
Alena Mornštajnová has undoubtedly succeeded in writing a captivating and multi-layered novel, in which she follows not only the lives of the three main heroines but also a number of other characters. It seems her book will be a similar revelation to Petra Hůlová's *In Memory of My Grandmother*.
