November

Alena Mornštajnová, one of the most successful Czech writers, surprises again in her novel Listopád

Have you ever asked yourself what your life would have been like if things had turned out differently in November 1989? What would have been our fate if communism had not ended and we had remained behind the Iron Curtain separating us from the world and from each other?

The novel Listopád is a dramatic story of an ordinary family that is divided and pitted against each other by the great events of one November night. We follow the story of Marie Hajná, who is arrested and sentenced to twenty years in prison for her participation in the demonstrations. She knows she will probably never see her children grow up again, and it is only letters that keep her alive. And the hope that they will eventually be reunited.

Alongside this is the story of a girl, Magdalena, who is taken away from her parents and placed in a "convalescent home" where new communist cadres are being educated. One day their destinies intersect, but in a completely different way than they both imagined and wished.