Despite the belief that good returns good, life offers countless examples that this is not always the case. Nevertheless, we continue to believe in justice and kindness… When someone “tries” to use his own example to point out the cruelty of fate, most people do not like it. However, like many others, such beliefs should be laid bare. This is exactly what the Czech writer does in a blunt, but also humorous and ironic way Tereza Boučkova.

Autobiographically, her novel “The Year of the Rooster” is often described as controversial. The popularity and interest in this manuscript has not waned since 2008, when it was published in the Czech Republic, and then throughout Europe and even the world, which is not surprising considering the subject matter of the work.

“The author speaks loudly and bluntly about the adoption of Roma children, without reaching into the dictionary for permitted and correct expressions, and openly exposes her inner self to the public. Despite her personal frustration due to her failure as a woman-mother-writer, Boučková lucidly interwoven her text with numerous references to well-known literary, film and theater productions, thereby making a departure from a mere diary narrative,” states the description of the work published in the Croatian Hena. .

The book was recently presented in Montenegro at the International Literary Festival “Odakle zovem”…

After the doctors told her, as a young woman, that she would not be able to have children, her husband and she decided to provide a home for neglected children and in the space of a year they adopted two Roma boys, one year old each. Soon she herself gave birth to another boy. The idyllic life with three sons in a village near Prague changed when the elders entered puberty…

“Her two adopted sons of Roma origin become problematic, unruly and unrecognizable at puberty, and overpower all her benevolent efforts. As a result, her marriage is shaken, and she falls into a creative crisis, torn by the desire to fulfill all her roles”, adds the description of the work, the author of which does not hide the fact that it has opened up a great public controversy.

“This book also brought me a lot of criticism from the public, primarily because I opened up a taboo topic, which is that adopting a child does not always have to end nicely and happily, as people usually think,” says Boučkova in an interview with “Vijesti” “.

But in addition to these events, “The Year of the Rooster” opens up many other topics, with which Boučkova once again shows that she is not only a writer, but also an activist in several fields, primarily, a fighter for freedom and equality, but also against totalitarianism, which is etched in her memory. .

At one time, she was the youngest signatory of Charter 77, a document of Czechoslovak intellectuals from 1977 criticizing the communist government. The charter grew into a civil movement and marked the beginning of the so-called The Velvet Revolution of 1989. Often presented as the daughter of a famous Czech writer and dissident Pavel Kohout, one of the most prominent opponents of the regime, Tereza Boučkova tells “Vijesta” that her sense of the value of justice, freedom and democracy has to do exclusively with herself, additionally because she did not live with her father. Guided by experience and remembering one occupation, she tells “Vijesta” that she is afraid of new moves on the geopolitical scene, and that she is deeply affected by the current wars…

Tereza Boučkova talks about all this for “Vijesti”.

Although it was written and published relatively recently (given the hyperproduction that rules the scene), “The Year of the Rooster” is still a popular book, which is a rare occurrence today. I believe that this is mostly because of the action itself, additionally if we know that it is true, that is, your personal story…

That’s right, the plot of the book is related to my and my family’s problems with adopted sons and their adaptation… It’s actually the story of a woman who, after the worst scenario happened to her, i.e. the breakup of her family, goes through many other crises at the same time – mid-life crisis, crisis in marriage, crisis in creativity, crisis of everything possible… I think that that turning point, when a person starts looking for himself and sees where he is in all of this, will meet everyone in some way and at some point . I think that with this book it is not so important that it is old, but what is important is its content, which says that any element from that book can happen to anyone at any time or someone can face it, in some way. That’s how I encountered comments from readers from Poland, Croatia, Italy, who confirmed to me that, although they did not have adopted children, they went through the stages that I mention in the book… Considering that, I think it is very important for the reader to find himself in that story, in the book, and not to think about when it was published or how old it is.

Purely informative, for the sake of readers’ curiosity, these adopted, adopted sons of ours are of Roma origin and they are still here, they live in the Czech Republic, they have their own children, but unfortunately they live some of their complicated lives which are mostly directed by something else, some bigger forces, like for example with drugs… After the adoption, my husband and I also got a biological son who is still attached to his brothers today…

Considering such an intimate and personal story, how do you experience the many literary evenings where you talk about it, you personally, and then through others?

The writer should never think about whether the book will help someone, whether it will give someone a break and in general what kind of impression it will have, because in this way he loses focus on what he wants to write. This book was certainly not created as my therapy during those events, but I (wrote) it only after I had gone through that phase, when I had somehow gotten out of it all. In order to bring it closer, without it being some pathetic, weepy and pitiful book, a person has to go through a certain period and phases, he has to solve all this with himself, so that he could write what he wants in the way he wants and to it had some strength at all, without being a classic retelling of one’s own life in a pathetic way. Although this book is my bestseller and most popular manuscript, I have to share the other side of the coin, which is that this book brought me a lot of criticism in society and the public, primarily because I opened up a taboo topic, which is that adopting a child does not always have to to end nicely and happily, as people usually think. I showed that other side. Here in the Czech Republic there is a certain, I won’t say a rule, but a story and a belief that when you adopt a child, you give him all the love you can, it will be returned to you in the best possible way. In my book, I showed that sometimes it was just the opposite, telling my story, which is really the exact opposite of those beliefs and expectations. In this way, I ran into that part of society that does not like that way of thinking.

Can we say that various comments on the opening of topics like these encourage the voice of important life topics, to some extent taboos?

Taboos exist to open up stories about them. However, once you open that Pandora’s box, it’s very difficult to deal with. I will return to the book “Year of the Rooster” once more, because I want to emphasize that it is not about generalizing anything, but purely describing my life, my problems, my family, my own experience, all of which I can describe and write however I want. I want and I feel I should.

Since your youth, you have been an activist, a fighter against closed regimes, totalitarian systems.

It’s something I seem to carry inside me. I say again, there is another side to the story, which is that I have to learn to deal with such things myself, so that I don’t succumb to panic.

In addition to inheriting your father’s socio-political engagement, in a way, you are also a writer, just like him. Is it a family inheritance, possibly just a talent in the genes, a kind of obligation and responsibility for you, or do you create independently, under the influence of some other circumstances?

I never lived with my father. He never raised me nor could he influence me and my development in any way. Considering that, I can say that I did everything I did by myself. Maybe I can say that I inherited some literary talent from him. It will be that everything is first and foremost a question of my personality and character, additionally because my two closest and only relatives I have are not activists at all.

In your opinion, how important is that rebellion, especially among young people, but also among artists, like you, who have a stronger voice in public than the average citizen?

A person must work in accordance with his conscience, without thinking about whether and how someone will condemn or condemn him. No matter how complex your question sounds, it’s actually simple – it’s all a matter of conscience.

Every writer at some point (certainly) goes through certain crises, probably reaches that moment when he doesn’t know how to proceed. It is very important that the man, the creator, does not give up, but finds his own way.

In an interview, you stated that you are happy and grateful that you spend at least a certain part of your life outside the communist regime as it was in Czechoslovakia. I will not ask you about the situation in the Czech Republic today, but I am more interested in how you see the increasingly pronounced strengthening of the right in Europe?

I wouldn’t be able to talk about the left or the right, but what affects and destroys me personally is the current war in Ukraine. I was also very touched by the attack on Israel on October 7. Honestly, with regard to the preparation of the election processes, and then to the election period itself, not only in Europe, but also in America, I have some kind of apprehension about how all this will continue and where it will go. I’m honestly afraid that Putin, not only that he will not withdraw from Ukraine, but that he will not be satisfied with this alone, and that he will not stop there. I say this because I experienced the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia. I was 11 years old at the time, and that’s when the worst possible totalitarianism came for me. Maybe for some there were more difficult moments, but for me it was the worst period. Although I have certain opinions about certain figures in the Government of the Czech Republic, I still believe that we live in a democratic system, and that we will continue to live in such a system.

What is the role of literature today in this context of freedom, struggle, democracy and totalitarianism?

I think that literature, especially this forbidden one, had more weight in the time of totalitarianism, because, for example, my son has a different understanding of the events of that time, considering the awareness of freedom in which he lives now. They are totally different perceptions. For example, he is very concerned about climate change, he is active in this field and he wants to change something about it.

And these are certainly important questions, but it is quite certain that a lot depends on the experience a person has, and then also the time in which he lives.

Yes, that means that certain feeling and experience of totalitarianism is very difficult to convey and even more difficult to explain to people who were born in a certain freedom or in some other system, in a system of freedom. But literature is still something that can bring such things and experiences somewhat closer to today’s generations. At the time of covid, when various bans were in force, when you could not move freely, go outside your municipalities and travel between countries, to some extent this was very close and similar to the time in which I lived… So that is something we could only somewhat compare.

I understand that the media and readers are very interested in the fate of your sons, and since you write inspired by your own experience, life, and family, could there be a sequel to “Year of the Rooster”?

I wrote a free continuation that is not directly related to the “Year of the Rooster”, and which describes some part of my life again. It is the book “Life is beautiful”. In the novel “Year of the Rooster” the main subject is my sons, and in the second one the main subject is my mother.

I am also preparing a new novel that will be published soon. I try not to express my personal experiences, but I can’t completely defend myself from it, but in fact somehow convey my view and experience of this world. This work currently has six readers at its disposal, as it is still in the process of being published, but so far, the reactions are positive. There I dedicated myself to the lives of the residents of a building, before and after the war.

It seems that war is an inexhaustible but always anxious topic, just like the totalitarianism you talked about, at least from your experience. What kind of lives will future readers witness when reading your latest novel?

The two main themes, that is, the stories I write about in this book, are located in that one building in Prague and are connected to it. The first is the story of Jewish citizens before the very beginning of the Second World War, and then after it. There are stories of those Jews who did not manage to escape, and their stories and lives ended with them ending up in concentration camps… The second story follows the lives of citizens who were in some way marked by that totalitarian police power. The stories are intertwined with each other, since both regimes completely suppressed freedom… So, it was in that building that people lived with those stories that were extremely fascinating to me, so I dedicated myself to researching the lives of those people from that building. I will conclude the story related to this new novel by revealing that it is actually a kind of detective novel and way of thinking, because I am researching the stories of these people, how they lived, where they lived and how they all ended up in the end…

And yes, you made a good comparison… I have a certain fear that everything that we thought until now was left in some distant period in the past, and that some things really have finally ended, that they have been concluded and will not be repeated , unfortunately it turns out that it is not quite so and that belief is not entirely correct. I believe that there is always a possibility that something from history will repeat itself.

There have never been too many readers, but there will be fewer and fewer

How important is translation in the context of expanding the readership, especially when it comes to the so-called minor languages?

Unfortunately, I am of the opinion that there will be fewer and fewer readers. I am honestly of the opinion that, in fact, when we look at the past, there were never too many of them, but that there were always about ten percent of the population. I am also of the opinion that every author should and must be happy to know that his work has been translated into several languages, and even more so when he receives a comment from a certain country, when he receives certain reactions, that the book touched someone, that someone was found in it and the like. It always makes me happy, but it is not a priority in my life, I must admit. (laughter)

When I write, I sit at home

As someone who has experienced the restriction of freedom in that context, how do you experience numerous professional trips on the occasion of various literary events?

I traveled a lot to various book fairs, especially with the book “Year of the Rooster”. However, when I’m writing a piece, unfortunately I can’t travel much, because it takes a lot of time, I have to sit at home and focus on what I’m writing. Then, unfortunately, the corona virus happened, so basically I haven’t traveled anywhere lately. The last time I presented the book “The Year of the Rooster” in Italy and another book that was actually published before that, “The Indian Run”. However, the travels and presentations of “Year of the Rooster” were at some point quite exhaustive and demanding for me, because along with the presentation of the book and the travels, I also had to solve a problematic situation with my family, which was exactly the same as in the story itself. In a way, everything led to the fact that in a certain period I had to cancel those trips.

Due to problems with the totalitarian system, she could not leave the country

Have you visited Montenegro for the first time, on the occasion of the festival “Odakle zovem” and do you know anything about our country and literature? At one time, there was a kind of bridge in the field of culture and art between the former Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic, that is, Czechoslovakia.

At the time when this exchange between Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia was present, I unfortunately could not travel, because I did not have a passport and therefore I could not even leave the country, all because of my problems with the totalitarian system. I’ve been to Montenegro for the first time now, and I’m yet to paint a picture of your country. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Montenegrin literature, so it is very possible that I will start to be interested in that part of your culture when I return home.

( Jelena Kontić )