Santini’s Language

November 2005, 400 pages

Available material: English sample

Foreign editions: Spain (El Anden), Hungary (Kalligram)

Santini’s language is a page turner and a dangerous search for the mystery of the universal sentence. But does it exist at all? Or is it a chimera? And is it indeed hidden in the churches built by baroque architect Jan Blažej Santini? And why is somebody so eager to spill blood, merely to keep it secret? Martin Urmann is an employee of a corporate advertising agency, but his ideas seem too idiosyncratic and he is about to be sacked. He does get one more chance, however – a task that no one else wants and no one believes can be accomplished. Martin has to make up a slogan that is applicable for all people and all situations and could sell any goods. In his despair he decides that to achieve universality he has to start just about anywhere. So he walks into a church and finds out there is a young woman following him, wanting precisely what he wants: The univesal dictum. Santini’s Language loosely connects with Urban’s The Shadow of the Cathedral.

Adapted for television by the director Jiri Strach.