The Shutter
February 2017, 264 pages
Available material: English sample, German sample
The contemporary face of modern Czech literature, none of Miloš Urban’s previous works have made such easy and smooth reading as his latest book.
The Shutter is an erotic novel about the curse of our age when anyone can become a photographer and take at least one good shot. Motivation is the key. Amateur photographer Matěj approaches Věra, a female model with zero modelling experience, randomly in the street and starts to post his unique photographs on the picture-sharing site Blickperson, gradually building up an army of fans. The arrangement leads to the blossoming of a unique relationship, photographs that radiate a genuine kind of magic and a combined chemistry that creates something above-average. Matěj continues to view his relationship with Věra as entirely professional, but there is a realistic chance of romance developing. Then the model decides to take it upon herself to dramatically resolve, one way or another, her still ill-defined relationship with Matěj and it ends up threatening the young man’s job, potentially turning his entire world upside-down.
From the sample translation
“Věra knelt down, spread out her arms, and again gradually exhaled through her nose. At first, she touched the base of the lake with her toes, but then her footing gave way. The last air in her lungs bubbled around her head. Matěj took his pictures through the water, and then, with his right hand, grabbed the model around her waist and yanked her up. In his left hand, the camera was manoeuvred in such a way as to keep it dry from both the lake and the spattering rain. ‘Bit over-enthusiastic, aren’t we? You know, sooner or later you would have ended up inhaling water, you silly girl. ”Why are you photographing me in the process of drowning?” I don’t know. The surface is like its own lens. It deforms you just a little – but not too much. Enough to change you ever so slightly. Věra floating in the streams of time…’ ‘I think you’re trying to get rid of me.’”