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Czech author Anna Fodorova will be in discussion with writer and literary critic Jude Cook plus readings by actress Lisa Rose.
In the Blood is an unforgettable twentieth century family saga set in 1980s London, Prague and Munich against the backdrop of the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. It explores the impact of history on the personal lives of three generations – a mother, a daughter and a grandmother. The novel follows Agata, the only child of Czech/Jewish parents, who grew up in Prague with the belief that all her relatives perished in the Holocaust. Now living in London with her English husband and their young daughter Lily, Agata discovers astonishing news: not everyone died. Agata’s decision to look for her surviving relatives quickly turns from excitement to obsession, but as she gets closer to unearthing long-buried secrets, her search threatens to tear apart not only the family she already has, but her own identity too. Drawing on her acute understanding of human psychology, as well as her own life story, Anna Fodorova tells a compelling and moving tale of one woman’s search for the truth. As personal and political histories collide, In the Blood explores grief, identity, longing, family relationships and the long shadow of the horrors of the Holocaust.
Anna Fodorova also grew up in post-war Prague in a family without relatives. After a career that began in animation and script writing, she now lives in the UK and works as a psychotherapist and author, writing in both English and Czech. Read her interview with Radio Prague here
The official book launch will be followed by refreshments and book signing.
Free admission for members of the BCSA, £10 for non-members, full-time students £5
Book online with Eventbrite (see link below)
or by email to bcsa@bcsa.co.uk
Ed Peacock, editor of the BCS Review writes: I found this a compelling book. I was so drawn into Agata’s search for her relatives, with its false starts and the continued opposition she encounters, even from her nearest and dearest. All this against the background of momentous change in Central and Eastern Europe. And there’s some lovely writing: evocative details such as the contents of a cache of children’s toys from years back, the squalor of a bachelor’s flat, an English cemetery glimpsed from a car. I finished it in Prague – just the right place to do that!
In the Blood will be published by Arachne Press on 27 October 2022 (paperback: £12.00, e-book: £4)
Organised in co-operation with Arachne Press, the Czech Embassy and Czech Centre London and Lutyens & Rubinstein bookshop.
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