White Water

Evarista's story and the fates of the other nuns are based on real events, which Kateřina Tučková spent many years researching in archives and among witnesses. In addition to its gripping plot, her novel also takes a critical look at the position of women in the Catholic Church and, on a symbolic level, at the unequal position of women throughout society.

I wrote this novel on and off for ten years. In between, I read materials I discovered in the archives, spoke with witnesses, stayed in a monastery, and also went through a complex spiritual search that helped me to get closer to my characters from the inside. I think it is my most deeply felt book.

Bílá Voda brings together everything that Kateřina Tučková already used to great effect in The Žítková Goddesses – strong female (and other) heroines, the theme of persecution, and archetypes in real historical events or characters.

Bílá Voda may displease some Catholic dignitaries, men and perhaps even women accustomed to obeying in the pews and forming a crowd. That's fine – but Kateřina Tučková has, through the history of forced internment and imprisonment, arrived at a topic that need not only be remembered as a tragic historical period, but can be opened up for contemporary discussion. Even for people outside the Catholic community.

Kateřina Tučková went against the grain, for which she deserves great admiration. She opened up a completely new topic for me, that of female nuns, and in the space of the difficult years of communism, she built a tribute not only to them, but above all to the power of faith in God, and the whole thing still makes literary sense. She did not overlook evil, death, hopelessness, blasphemy; she did not omit humanity in all its forms (beatings, despair, hopelessness, sadness, faith, love, humiliation), but I understand that it must have been extremely draining for her.