This disturbing debut by the young screenwriter is an original analysis of a society ignoring its impending doom.

When the novel opens with a mysterious sphere arriving to Earth from outer space, it could easily just be another sci-fi story. However, Klára Vlasáková avoids genre stereotypes and describes a society through resigned, apathetic figures who remain lifeless, becoming ever more blind and affected by the unknown sphere, the presence of which is left entirely unexplained. The gloomy but fast-paced psychological narrative could be a metaphor for a dehumanized society which has been transformed into a lifeless machine. A stylistically convincing novel which forces the reader to think.

Throughout the book, there is a long-lasting heat wave that holds society in its grips. Global warming, in the background, is an important element in the story: for example, groups of people go see the sphere in the hope that it might change this situation. In this way, the story is embedded in current social problems. The characters are everyday, average people, and recognizable to the reader. Like everyone else, they struggle with life in their own way. Some have traumatic experiences, others experience setbacks in a changing world. They seek solace in pills, struggle with burnout, fall into lethargy; in short, they have trouble living. A life that is now confronted with something inexplicable, a floating sphere that reacts to nothing and does nothing. But it does affect people.

“Klára Vlasáková presents an image of a world in crisis which is not futuristic – in fact most readers will recognize it: it is a world which has lost the ability to govern and control its own destiny.”

— Aktuálně

“Klára Vlasáková presents an image of a world in crisis which is not futuristic – in fact most readers will recognize it: it is a world which has lost the ability to govern and control its own destiny.”

— iDnes

“In each of her stories, the author is not afraid to express her opinion on the problems of our everyday life: she talks about the socially vulnerable, about alienation in work and private relationships, but also about the climate crisis. But she does so non-violently, engagingly, as if out of the blue.”

— iDnes