The Last Goddess
A Novel
Published on 1. May 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
432 pages
978-1-5420-3637-5 (ISBN)
Description
A woman delves into science and superstition, fear and persecution, and the hope and courage of belief in an award-winning and internationally bestselling novel by Katerina Tuckova.
Last in a centuries-old lineage of healing women, Dora Idesova was raised by her aunt Surmena in the White Carpathians. Resistant to superstition, Dora grew up hearing stories of the "goddesses" who were said to conjure love and curses and, through divine connection, cure the spirit and the body. Now an academic, Dora is researching the tales that for generations spellbound the hillside where she grew up. As the mysteries become truths, they reveal a stunning discovery that reaches back from the witch trials of the seventeenth century through Nazi-occupied Germany. Embarking on an emotional journey, Dora is about to find out how deeply and fatefully she is entwined with secret tradition.
Beautifully weaving together fact, folklore, and fiction, Katerina Tuckova draws on the stories of her ancestors to explore the extraordinary history of goddesses who walked the earth.
Last in a centuries-old lineage of healing women, Dora Idesova was raised by her aunt Surmena in the White Carpathians. Resistant to superstition, Dora grew up hearing stories of the "goddesses" who were said to conjure love and curses and, through divine connection, cure the spirit and the body. Now an academic, Dora is researching the tales that for generations spellbound the hillside where she grew up. As the mysteries become truths, they reveal a stunning discovery that reaches back from the witch trials of the seventeenth century through Nazi-occupied Germany. Embarking on an emotional journey, Dora is about to find out how deeply and fatefully she is entwined with secret tradition.
Beautifully weaving together fact, folklore, and fiction, Katerina Tuckova draws on the stories of her ancestors to explore the extraordinary history of goddesses who walked the earth.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Katerina Tuckova's Gerta"The story is an unvarnished chronicle of a young woman doing what she must to protect herself and her daughter." -Historical Novel Society
"Gerta's main strength is its lyrical language, translated exquisitely from the original Czech into English by Veronique Firkusny. The nimble text elevates the narrative and evokes deep emotions, while succinct descriptions capture Gerta's-and her country's-pitiable condition." -Washington Independent Review of Books
"Tuckova has tackled one [of] the most difficult chapters in European history, one that has been influencing the relationship between two nations for decades. It's a tale of prejudice, of exclusion and collective shame. Gerta is both a disturbing novel and a wonderful piece of literature that could easily become a classic." -The Constant Reader
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Publishing group
Amazon Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5420-3637-5 (9781542036375)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Katerina Tuckova is a Czech playwright, publicist, biographer, art historian, exhibition curator, and bestselling author of The Last Goddess and Gerta. She has won several literary awards, including the Magnesia Litera Award (for both Gerta and The Last Goddess), the Brno City Prize for literature, the Josef Skvorecky Award, and the Czech Bestseller Award. Katerina is also the recipient of the Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Award from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and of the Premio Salerno Libro d'Europa at the book fair in Salerno, Italy. Between 2015 and 2018, she was a founder and first president of the Meeting Brno festival, focusing on international and intercultural dialogue. Katerina currently lives in Prague and Brno, Czech Republic. Her books have been translated into nineteen languages, and her latest novel in Czech is Bila Voda. For more information, visit www.katerina-tuckova.cz/en/.
Andrew Oakland was born in Nottingham in the Midlands of England in 1966. He is a graduate in German from the Universities of Southampton and Nottingham. From 1994 he taught for ten years at Masaryk University in the Czech city of Brno, where he still lives. He has been a freelance translator from the Czech and the German since 2005. Novels in his translation include Michal Ajvaz's The Golden Age and Empty Streets (both published by Dalkey Archive Press; the former was a Fiction Finalist at the 2011 Best Translated Book Awards), Radka Denemarkova's Money from Hitler (Women's Press, Toronto), Martin Fahrner's The Invincible Seven (Palava Publishing, Brno), and a new rendering of Mikes, Josef Lada's classic Czech work for children (published as Nico by Albatros, Prague).
Andrew Oakland was born in Nottingham in the Midlands of England in 1966. He is a graduate in German from the Universities of Southampton and Nottingham. From 1994 he taught for ten years at Masaryk University in the Czech city of Brno, where he still lives. He has been a freelance translator from the Czech and the German since 2005. Novels in his translation include Michal Ajvaz's The Golden Age and Empty Streets (both published by Dalkey Archive Press; the former was a Fiction Finalist at the 2011 Best Translated Book Awards), Radka Denemarkova's Money from Hitler (Women's Press, Toronto), Martin Fahrner's The Invincible Seven (Palava Publishing, Brno), and a new rendering of Mikes, Josef Lada's classic Czech work for children (published as Nico by Albatros, Prague).