Forbidden touches
Audiobook
Forbidden touches
Sins of the past and forbidden love: The fourth case of yeoman Jožík Bukovský
At the bottom of a pond, some swimming children discover a strange chest. When pulled ashore, it reveals a horrific discovery: the body of a murdered six-month-old child. The mayor of Pelhřimov entrusts yeoman Jožík Bukovský with uncovering the mystery and circumstances of this monstrous crime. The investigation leads Jožík to Roštejn Castle and reveals connections to other places, primarily in southern Moravia, but also in the Balkans, where a victorious battle against the Turks is taking place at Zenta.
He gradually discovers that the main players in the plot are people who have crossed the line into forbidden love, thereby awakening a thirst for revenge. Pošíval's final book immerses us in the atmosphere of the late 17th century.
The fourth case of yeoman Jožík Bukovský is a standalone sequel to the author's previous historical novels with detective elements. It would be difficult to find a comparison for the style of Pošíval's novel in Czech literature: Forbidden Touches is a historical detective story in much the same way as Eco's The Name of the Rose, yet it does not appeal to an exclusive circle of readers, instead reaching a much wider audience interested in history and adventurous criminal plots. Alongside the motives for the crime, the author delves into the Baroque period, capturing the atmosphere of its customs, fashion, gastronomy, theology, sexuality, etiquette, and the appearance of the natural world at the time. The author skillfully builds suspense, consciously connecting the past with modern perceptions and literary tradition with postmodernism.
Zdeněk Pošíval
A graduate of the Theatre Faculty of AMU in Prague. He worked as a director in Moravia from 1962–1969. In the autumn of 1969, he returned to Prague with his family and, together with his friend, dramaturge Miloslav Klíma, founded the 'Na Forbíně' Actors' Cabaret Club at the Malostranská Beseda. Over the years, he has collected several national and international awards for his work in theatre, radio, and television screenwriting. After 1990, he focused increasingly on writing. He wrote essays for magazines and novellas with a Western-detective character under the pseudonym R. H. Douglas, before later dedicating himself exclusively to fiction. In 1998, he wrote Murderous Week, a detective story set in contemporary Prague (which was one of the best-selling books in the week of its release). Afterwards, Zdeněk Pošíval concentrated on historical stories set in the Czech lands. Without abandoning adventurous themes, he gradually achieves much deeper insights into society and the mentality of individuals, for example in his 1999 book That Night the Moon Was Full and his 2000 novel Temptation and Revenge. Although the following novels published by Epocha Publishing are standalone stories, they feature the unifying protagonist, yeoman Jožík Bukovský: Satan's Horses (2003), Satan's Spring (2005, which received the Jiří Marek Award for the best Czech crime novel of the year), Satan's Moments (2010), and Forbidden Touches (2012). The completely independent conclusion to the pentalogy about yeoman Jožík Bukovský, Who Hides the Face, is set during the cruel 17th century and seeks to find a picture of humanity's humanistic mission in this world within human situations. Pošíval's final novel was published in record time, so the author was still able to enjoy it. Zdeněk Pošíval's last artistic wish was the publication of his memoirs from the 1945 school semester, which he spent with his grandfather Jindřich Hess in Radňov in the Pelhřimov region. The book Grandfather's Sentence or The Scent of Fresh Sawdust, Bread and Honey, which was first serialised in the online Pozitivní Noviny (Positive News), is a look through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy at family togetherness, the meaning of which was dominant for the author throughout his life, despite all personal somersaults.
Specifications
Nakladatelství Epocha s.r.o., Kaprova 12, 11000 Praha 1-Staré Město, Česká republika, 224 810 352
