“The tsunami removes the doubts from everyone in due time. And makes room for a beautiful blues. A tsunami blues.”
— Týdeník Rozhlas
About the Book
Original Title | Tsunami Blues |
First Published | 2014 |
Publisher | Torst Publishers, Prague |
Pages | 304 |
Rights Sold
Austria | Braumüller – Vienna |
Spain | Baile del Sol – Tenerife |
During a holiday in Thailand the young talented trumpet player Karla Klimentová is caught by the infamous, catastrophic tsunami. She loses both her parents. Back in the Czech Republic her former teacher persuades her to make a trip to Cuba. There Karla gets mixed up in a thriller-like ‘road story’ on a hellish island that is all but a friendly Caribbean paradise. The past, full of the secret service, politics, blackmail, comes to live and tears open all kind of old wounds.
Blues is perhaps the only right word to express the atmosphere and tone of this novel. It is not just about a traditional form of music, it is also a poetic form that for many poets under the communist rule was a source of inspiration. Blues was a safe haven and a tool for escape. Blues is a metaphor for endless sorrow as well as a way to rebel against your own fate..
“We can recommend this book to anyone who want to listen to blues, opens one’s eyes and find out that it’s worth living, even though life can sometimes be difficult to endure.”
— Femag
“The stories of the characters in the new novel by Markéta Pilátová are within the context of Czech prose extremely impressive. What makes the novel so exceptional is that the author managed to incorporate elements of a spy thriller in the very successful constructed intrigue”
— iLiteratura
“All layers and motives, characters and stories refer to one junction: that of a big city that has spread out over the whole world and has touched everyone’s life.”
— Hospodářské noviny
Translations
Tsunami Blues
Braumüller Vienna, 2017
Translated by Mirko Kraetsch
Tsunami Blues
Baile del Sol, Tenerife, 2017
Translated by Kepa Uharte