Eva Mach Grestenbergerová
Eva Mach Grestenbergerová (*1993) has a degree in Psychology and Zootechnics. For eight years she devoted her life to sport. Her first literary achievement was the dystopian novel Zlo je rodu mužského (Evil is Masculine), followed by the non-fiction book Zvířata jsou k sežrání (Loving Animals to Death) dealing with the psychology of carnism and veganism. She also co-authored the animal rights publication Nesvoboda (Unfreedom). Apart from literature, animals are a big interest of hers. Although she has always flirted with satire, In the Wild Country is her first purely humorous piece of writing.
NOMINATED FOR THE GREATEST LITERARY PRIZE IN CZECHIA (2023)
In the Wild Country
October 2022, 176 pages
Available material: English synopsis
A series of experiences in the Moravian countryside will all make burst out laughing
Poor mental health forces doctoral student Malvína Velehorská to put her studies at Oxford on hold and return home to northern Moravia. What awaits her there is a very peculiar family—her father is a politician, her mother an autistic fan of Karel Gott, her grandparents morbidly austere Catholics, and her cousin an occasional alcoholic. Motifs involving local politics, folk festivities from feasts to hockey, driving lessons, and cohabiting with children put Malvína at the center of bizarrely comic situations. As a social psychologist, she sees her family as a promising subject for anthropological study, but the role of a Moravian villager doesn’t suit her too well. The book offers no moral lessons, but you might learn how to drink slivovitz like a real tough guy, and find out whether agricultural engineers are real engineers, why politicians wear toilet paper under their jackets, and that ferret owners are frigid people.
