Petra Braunová
Petra Braunová (b. 1967 in Prague) is an established, genre-versatile author. She writes books for beginner readers, children in primary and secondary school as well as adults. Her repertoire of genres consists of real-life stories, psychological probes into the inner workings of characters and interpersonal relationships, adventure stories, science fiction and fantasy pieces, psychological thrillers, and biographical and popular science books. The author’s young adult novel Czech Maid, or I Was an Au Pair, was awarded the Czech Golden Ribbon award.
Ibka
October 2022, 288 pages
Available material: English sample
A family chronicle and a harsh picture of the countryside
A harsh picture of the countryside and the urban periphery of the last third of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. The main character, the author herself, is sent by her parents to the Pošumaví region for the summer. There, she has a hard time getting along with her grandmother, who mysteriously ignores her. To the sensitive Prague child, the days seem endless and the world around her strange: the village is marked by its littleness and rejection of otherness. Step by step, the main character figures out the ‘why’ of it all, uncovering family secrets, old wrongs, the root causes of tensions in the family, and the reason her beloved father likes to break out in fits of desperate rage. She decides to rebuild an old school building and transform it into a meeting place for local children. Even at the cost of hurt feelings and disappointment, Petra forges her way through life, breaking free from the family rut and the confines of social conventions.