Love Letter in Cuneiform

Set in Czechoslovakia between the 1940s and the 1990s, Toma? Zme?kal’s stimulating novel focuses on one family’s tragic story of love and the unspoken. Josef meets his wife, Kveta, before the Second World War at a public lecture on Hittite culture. Kveta chooses to marry Josef over their mutual friend Hynek, but when her husband is later arrested and imprisoned for an unnamed crime, Kveta gives herself to Hynek in return for help and advice. The author explores the complexities of what is not spoken, what cannot be said, the repercussions of silence after an ordeal, the absurdity of forgotten pain, and what it is to be an outsider.

In Zme?kal’s tale, told not chronologically but rather as a mosaic of events, time progresses unevenly and unpredictably, as does one’s understanding. The saga belongs to a particular family, but it also exposes the larger, ongoing struggle of postcommunist Eastern Europe to come to terms with suffering when catharsis is denied. Reporting from a fresh, multicultural perspective, Zme?kal makes a welcome contribution to European literature in the twenty-first century.

Toma? Zme?kal was born in Prague and educated at King’s College, University of London. He returned to his native country after the collapse of communism in the 1990s and is now a writer and teacher. He is the author of two novels, a work of literary nonfiction, radio plays, and short stories. He lives in Prague, Czech Republic. Alex Zucker is an award-winning freelance translator of Czech. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.