Ondřej Štindl
Ondřej Štindl (b. 1966) is a renowned journalist who works as a columnist for the news site and daily paper Deník N. In his texts, like those of other members of the revolutionary generation, the starting points and legacy of the Velvet Revolution are a constant given. Coming to terms with Czech post-war history also occupies his artistic work. Štindl has written two novels, Mondschein (2012) and To the Frontier (2016), and several screenplays, two of which won the Czech Republic’s most important film award, the Czech Lion. In February 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Ferdinand Peroutka Prize for Journalist of the Year. His latest novel, So Much Ash (2022), won the Czech round of the European Union Prize for Literature.
WINNER OF THE CZECH ROUND OF THE EUROPEAN UNION PRIZE FOR LITERATURE (2023)
AWARDED THE PRESTIGIOUS FERDINAND PEROUTKA PRIZE FOR THE JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR 2020
So Much Ash
February 2022, 312 pages
Available material: English sample
Ondřej Štindl’s best novel to date takes place in Prague during the pandemic
Kryštof, an aging writer and translator, finds himself at a crossroads when he meets Kristýna, a young left-wing intellectual, and soon after, Kamil, a guru with a strange connection to Kryštof’s deceased sister. The emerging pandemic changes life as he knows it, making the possibility of the end of the world more real than ever. Indeed, Kryštof may be heading for a „personal apocalypse“, plagued by melancholy, the grotesque, intrusive memories and dark premonitions. He becomes a reluctant actor in what could be a story of great revelation or a cruel cosmic joke. Or a story of love.
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“So Much Ash is a novel that transcends the norms of contemporary Czech literary fiction and can also attract foreign readers.”
— The Czech jury of the 2023 EU Prize for Literature
