In the Šumava Paradise

The region and the people after the storm. This novel is not a look into paradise, but into the souls of greedy and depraved people. Twisted characters breed twisted relationships. In 1870, an unprecedented storm swept through the Šumava, the likes of which the locals could not remember. A few years later, the fallen trees were occupied by the "golden bug", as the local people called the bark beetle. A natural disaster? For whoever. There were those who wanted to make a profit from the affected trees and turn the wooded hillsides into barrens. Karel Klostermann, whose depictions of the Šumava landscape are incomparable in the beauty of their language, was a great ironist in his choice of title. This novel is anything but a glimpse of paradise. The peasant Podhamersky is the epitome of arrogance, greed, recklessness and superiority. To grab as much as he can for himself, that's his goal in life. And his daughters? None of them help him when he goes so far in debt for the dowry of one of them that he has to sell the forest and ends up a pauper. The author balances the bad characters with the wisdom and humility of old Sepp, who enjoys the respect of others. Klostermann tells the story with a suggestiveness and urgency that still touches us today.