To Them, I Am God

November 2022, 336 pages

Available material: English sample, English synopsis

A powerful new novel from the winner of the greatest literary prize in Czechia

Bergen: a city where it is always gloomy and dark, where it rains for half a year straight, where no shops are open on the weekend, and where people communicate exclusively in Norwegian. A city surrounded by mountains one cannot climb. A city where loneliness and isolation grow to new dimensions.

Pride and fall. Loss and searching. The swirl of obsessive thoughts and the loss of existential faith experienced by the main character of Josef Panek’s newest novel brings readers again to the lavishness of uncompromising writing that sometimes scares even itself. Who is this idol, this confident god who has no doubts about being exceptional? Who knows what he wants and acts with no regrets? Who is this young man, admired by all friends? And what will happen to him when he resolves to deprive himself of the safety of home, where he knows everything and has everything under control – or so he thinks – leaving the post-revolutionary Czech Republic to pursue a science career in Bergen?

Unforeseen strangenesses knock him down, and soon he cannot even rely on his senses…