No One Is Alone

Reviews

"As an author, Petra Soukupová's recipe has been the same for many years. She describes the everyday concerns of ordinary people, their relationships and seemingly petty quarrels. And out of all Czech writers she writes about them the best.

(…)

There is perhaps no better time to read Soukupová than during the holiday season. As you go round your relatives, your own parents or in-laws, the novel No One is Alone might help you to realize what you want to do differently this time."

Jonáš Zbořil, Seznam Zprávy

"Problems abound, and the proverbial last straw (for chief protagonist Veronika, translator's note) seems to come with every new page. This is the author's proven method, and it is difficult to find anyone else in Czech literature who manages to come close to the overwhelming pressure of everyday affairs as evocatively as Petra Soukupová. (…)

Here Soukupová also demonstrates her skill at vividly conveying the experiences and thoughts of several characters of different ages."

Daniel Mukner, ČT Art

"As is customary with Soukupová, her novel is extremely readable. Again you can but devour the ordinary human stories and the banalities of everyday life, which Soukupová is able to name as no one else can. She once again highlights intergenerational conflicts and the petty human grievances, aches and pains resulting from family tensions. (…) Her books can also work therapeutically. We can feel something like relief that we are not as badly off as the protagonists. And if we are, then we might feel gratitude that we are not alone in this. (…) Soukupová has written a novel that is very difficult to forget, thanks inter alia to the strong ending."

Irena Hejdová, Deník N

"Petra Soukupová on top form once more. Here she is again with her precise descriptions of family jockeying for position, where someone might come out on top for a moment but no one can ever win this war. Veronika, her husband Michal and their two children, who are growing up. Just a normal family that you or I might have. Veronika’s mother dies, and her world, not on solid foundations anyway, is shaken.  Soukupová writes tersely, able to highlight sentences that ache with indifference and mirror the untruth and tension. What must and must not be done in the family to achieve the peace that is never there? What is not going to be said so as to avoid the conflict that has long been simmering beneath the surface? After reading each of Soukupová’s books I long to straighten out my relationships, so they are not like those of her protagonists."

Klára Kubíčková, Vlasta

"What can you expect from the title No One is Alone? Perhaps a strong action-packed story written in a rather imaginatively unexciting but otherwise dramatic and realistic style fuelled by film scriptwriting? Perhaps another lesson from a family breakdown, from the collapsed and extinguished relationships between generations: between children and parents, parents and grandparents, children and grandparents? A portrait gallery of selected characters that operate as desperately closed units, afraid of the world, and most of all of themselves? Relating to the other primarily through hurt, grievance, misunderstanding and basically all those complexes and feelings of inferiority and unfulfilment? Another sharp dose of minimum joy and maximum pain from life, a human tragedy that is sometimes so tragic it's actually comical? Petra Soukupová has used all these ingredients, motifs and procedures in her latest work to the fullest extent! (…)

It's all written precisely, as if mirroring the reality, psychology and sociology -- the dialogues as well as the backdrop. It's a great read, surely thanks in part to the alternating narrators and retrospective interpolations."

Radim Kopáč, MF DNES

"With the novel No One is Alone, the author once again demonstrates her ability to work elaborately on the psychology of her characters, especially the women and children. In addition, perfectly simulated everyday scuffles are accompanied by very authentic dialogues, in which we often see ourselves or our family members. Plausibility is an important feature of the author's work. Unlike other writers, she does not need to violently escalate the plot with murder or rape. Quite the reverse, she makes do with seemingly banal conflicts. Triggers tend to be absolute trifles, behind which hide long-suppressed negative emotions, accumulated disappointments and feelings of doom."

Lucie Lindnerová, Host

"Soukupová is able to skillfully script the gradual breakdown of familiar family dynamics. (...) So is this the Soukupová we all know? In the main, it is: the family remains at the centre of attention, with its specific difficulties rooted in ordinary spacetime, the chief protagonist's family falls apart, things crumble, loved ones drift apart, seemingly solid foundations collapse - in that, Soukupová is probably still the same. However, in other respects, she keeps pushing further and further: especially in the gradual psychological transformation of the chief protagonist, in the psychological portrayal of her slow detachment from reality, which subtly distorts her perception and surrounding relationships without her realizing it, and in the more thorough exploration of the intergenerational gaps. You can't expect the author to come up with anything radically different, especially when what she can do still finds acclaim among readers. If this were the debut of an unknown writer, it would undoubtedly be accompanied by a lot of superlatives, but this way it is often just “another Soukupová” in reviews. Never mind, that's just the way it works in the literary world, eager for originality, change, and nothing but aces. The reading world, however, is probably not bothered by this at all."

Alena Šidáková Fialová, Host