All this ash

Author's name: Ondershie Schindel

"The devil is there doing his work. Do you think he doesn't know you? Doesn't he watch your every move? Doesn't he wait for a small gap to appear so he can slip into your bodies, tear you to pieces, burn you, and scatter your ashes throughout hell, so that you can listen to his mocking laughter forever? I, too, mock you, not to ridicule you, but to make you wake up, for he who does not wake up is unable to protect himself, and I want to save you, for it is my duty to save you."

Ondří Šindl's novel "All This Ash" is set in Prague during the pandemic. The protagonist, a writer and translator, faces a pivotal moment in his life against his will. He encounters a cultured, left-leaning woman and a deviant religious group connected to his deceased sister during a pandemic that sweeps across the globe, foreshadowing its end and the end of Kristóf himself. Sad and frightening reflections and memories make the protagonist part of a cruel cosmic joke or a love story. The novel won the European Union Prize for Literature in 2023.