Ivana Gibová

The story features a despotic grandmother, a submissive mother, an alcoholic father, a brother with mild brain dysfunction, and a rebellious granddaughter named Magda. Told in a nonstop stream of hyperbolic narration, the novel plunges into Magda’s life, her family, classmates, and friends in a bleak small-town housing estate. The “©” in the title clearly distances the work from Božena Němcová’s idyllic Grandmother. Instead, it explores family tensions, aging, illness, the brutality of adolescence, abandonment fears, the longing for forgiveness, and the search for a personal path forward.

Published by Vlna, 2023