Marta in the Year of the Alien

Marta’s parents think that she’s clever and could make something of herself, particularly if she goes to university and works hard at her studies. Her younger sister thinks she’s a stuck-up airhead, while her older brother considers her childish and her colleague from work thinks she’s pretty hot. Her grandmother no longer recognizes her. But this book isn’t about how others see Marta – it’s Marta’s own diary, a book about the thoughts and experiences of a nineteen-year-old girl who has found everything easy so far but now stands at the threshold of what promises to be the most difficult and important year of her life.

Marta in the Year of the Alien is the story of a teenager who by a series of dramatic events is swept into adulthood. The book convinces by language that gives an accurate reflection of the thinking and diction of a teenage girl. Although there is now a greater age gap between the author and her heroine, Soukupová has not lost her ability to imagine and describe the life and experience of a nineteen-year-old girl.