In southern Brazil live the descendants of Czech Germans who arrived there in the 19th century. They speak Portuguese and German and call themselves Bohemios. We follow their pioneering beginnings through the eyes of one of them, young Hans. His parents traded the hard labor in the glassworks of northern Bohemia for the prospect of land they could farm. They didn’t expect to simply be given a patch of jungle that they would first have to clear themselves. To protect themselves from wild animals, they initially build nests in the trees to sleep in. Hans’ guide in this new environment becomes an old Indigenous shaman named Vovozona (great-grandmother), who has the ability to enter people’s dreams. We follow Hans on his life’s journey, first in South America (Porto Alegre, Buenos Aires), later in Europe (Vienna, Kroměříž), and finally back in the rainforest, on his parents’ land. His “coming of age” is marked by encounters with a variety of people, but even in his sleepwalking episodes, the deceased Jesuit Joseph never leaves his side.

In the book, the author draws on her personal experiences, having spent years in Brazil teaching Czech to the descendants of early immigrants from Bohemia, including Czech Germans. Her evocative descriptions of the environment—exotic to a European—are rich in animal and plant names (often in the original language), and she captures a wide variety of smells and scents in vivid imagery. Another important theme is the uprooting and replanting of plants, as well as human migration and the struggle to settle on the other side of the world. Virtually all the characters are “from elsewhere” and bring different languages with them, with each new language allowing a person to “slip into a different skin.”

“It is an original text brimming with scents, vivid imagery, and multiple layers of meaning, exploring themes of home, exile, personal growth, parallel dream worlds, and the true essence of humanity.”

— Aktuálně.cz

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