Cowardly Heroes

Every relationship can end in infidelity, every neighborhood in a mad feud, every dream of success in failure. And it doesn’t matter how much the spouses loved each other at the beginning of their relationship, where the roots of endless petty squabbles lie or how much genuine talent each person has. In her book of short stories, Simona Bohatá plays out the fates of her characters mercilessly, yet with a clear sense of perspective and understanding as if—despite the passage of time—she were still sitting on the old merry-go-round between apartment blocks. Cowardly heroes will always be with us after all, because it is we ourselves who stumble over the roots of our own doubts, inadequacies and even occasional acts of heroism.

“Doing Time on the Balcony,” translated by Alžběta Belánová, was featured in B O D Y.

Published in 2023 by Host Publishers in the Czech Republic.
200 pages / 135 x 205 mm