Places in the Dark

Forthcoming in June 2025.

A masterful collection of short stories that intertwines the lives of six women, revealing the profound realities beneath their ordinary existence, echoing the clarity and depth of Alice Munro’s storytelling.

In a realm where the mundane conceals profound depths, these intertwining short stories reveal the unseen reality beneath ordinary existence. Following her divorce, Tereza shuts off emotionally and flits from one faceless lover to the next, until an unexpected visitor shakes her existence to the core. Klara is a bird trapped in a golden cage slowly suffocating her. Eva has sacrificed herself to her children and family. Life is one big party for Karla, or is it? Alice is doing everything she can not to be a crybaby like her mother. Petra has finally had enough and takes drastic measures. Magdalena’s true yearnings bubble up to the surface. Their stories may be different but at certain moments, these women’s paths converge, weaving a vivid tapestry of lives interconnected.

Czech author Lidmila Kábrtová is a master of writing stories of astonishing clarity. Echoing the brilliance of Canada’s Alice Munro, words are handled as translucent veils, allowing the essential truths to shimmer through. Moments move about on tectonic plates somewhere beneath the surface of the everyday, and nothing will be as it used to be. Yet, in this kaleidoscope of narratives, the question lingers: Was it ever truly as it seemed?