Kingdom of Souls

Daniela Hodrová has pursued a dual career as a prominent writer of fiction and a prolific literary scholar. The recipient of the Czech State Prize for Literature in 2011 and the international Franz Kafka Prize in 2012, Hodrová is only the second woman to receive these awards. Her novels have been translated into French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Bulgarian, Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch

'This English translation took almost a quarter of a century to complete, but it was worth waiting for. The immersive poetic quality and complex polyphonic structure of the original have been painstakingly preserved.' - Andrei Rogatchevski, The Times Literary Supplement; 'A Kingdom of Souls is a dark and elusive novel, but it is also seductive. Hodrová's precise expression (in this fine translation) and unexpected perspectives make for an impressively disturbing, compelling text.' - M.A.Orthofer, The Complete Review; '[…] the entire city of Prague and its genius loci is, in fact, the central character, not just in The City of Torment trilogy but in all of Hodrová’s fiction. It is hoped that English speaking readers will soon get the chance to read the other two books in the remarkable trilogy” - Julia Sherwood, Visegrad Insight; 'This is an extraordinary book — erudite, moving and poetical.' - Zoe Brooks, magic-realism-books.co.uk; 'A Kingdom of Souls (1991, translated 2015 – significantly by two excellent female translators[…]), is a beautiful portrait of [Hodrová’s] city – memories, histories, haunting images.' - Heather Reyes, Stories from the City; An excerpt from A Kingdom of Souls won the 1992 Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing; Daniela Hodrová won the 2012 Franz Kafka Prize and the 2011 Czech State Award for Literature.