The story begins before the First World War, when Anna, the storyteller's grandmother, leaves, despite her parents' opposition with her chosen Antonín, to a border town in northern Bohemia. As if the initial letter of their names expressed the hope that it was here that they could start a new life together. At the same time, the name also symbolizes what we cannot choose, what is given to us as a family heirloom, which despite all our determination to change we always carry with us. Or fate, on whose tests we have little influence.
The new beginning soon turns into a struggle for survival when Antonin is wounded at the front and tuberculosis breaks out with Anna. A quarter of a century later their daughter Elizabeth, who must flee from the German border-occupying army, awaits another new start, and after another half-century, the dramatic fate of fate - this time as a StB officer - will change the story of Anežka.
Alena Mornštajnová, beyond doubt, managed to write a riveting and multi-layered novel that follows not only the lives of the three main heroines, but also a number of other characters, and her book seems to be a revelation like Memory to My Grandmother Petra Hůlová.
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