Lidové Noviny Book of the Year Award Finalist
Jewish Book Council “Recommended Read” & “Jewish Feminist Perspectives Reading List” selection
“[Aaron’s Leap] takes us on a journey through the turbulent times of wars, revolutions, and new directions in art. . . . The novel is beautifully written, with masterful creation of atmosphere and sculpting of the main characters.” —World Literature Today
“Just as a well-curated collection of art has the ability to capture the zeitgeist of a given era with great economy, [Aaron’s Leap] manages to position the reader in a present that is informed by the distinct motifs of the past.” —Necessary Fiction
“Art and modern thought are at the center of [Platzová’s] characters’ lives and they find ways to seek truth through art, love, and friendship, inviting the reader to join them on this journey of self-discovery.” —Jewish Book Council
“A moving, humane tale of life lived in history’s long shadow.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Platzová’s prose is as sharp and effective as the angles of an expressionist monument. . . . [A] powerfully elegiac novel.” —Publishers Weekly
“A Czech novel about art, death and sex set against the backdrop of the Holocaust and never-ending war . . . The reader comes to connect with and care for [Platzová’s] characters as more than mouthpieces for history.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Aaron’s Leap takes you on an epic journey, which is also a very intimate and personal story—entertaining, touching and brutally honest. Her characters are full of compassion and tenderness, but are never sentimental. It’s a great book.” —Agnieszka Holland, Academy Award-nominated writer and director of Europa Europa and guest director of HBO’s The Wire and Netflix’s House of Cards
“Beautifully written, absorbing, and impeccably researched.” —Zuzana Justman, Emmy Award-winning writer and director of Voices of the Children
“This young author’s book immediately caught my interest for its narrative mastery and remarkably skillful identification with the complex atmosphere of the interbellum era . . . [A] brilliant novel.” —Ivan Klíma, Franz Kafka Prize-winning author of Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light and My Crazy Century
“Told in clear and beautiful prose, Aaron’s Leap is a deeply moving portrait of love, sacrifice, and the transformative power of art in a time of brutal uncertainty.” —Simon Van Booy, author of The Illusion of Separateness
2013-12-15
A Czech novel about art, death and sex set against the backdrop of the Holocaust and never-ending war. The framing of the author's first novel to be translated into English initially appears to be unnecessarily complicated. The main narrative thread concerns the life and death of Berta Altmann, an underrecognized artist, inspirational teacher and Communist who died at Auschwitz. Her story has inspired a documentary film project, which begins the novel with a visit to the 88-year-old Kristýna, a better-known artist who learned from Berta and has her diaries, whose cooperation is reluctant at best. "[D]ead Jews are good business," she reflects cynically of the project. Because of Kristýna's reluctance to consent to more than a terse interview, the filmmakers enlist her granddaughter, Milena, to help on the project. There's an immediate attraction between the beautiful Milena and the cameraman, the Aaron of the title. And then we get to Berta's story, which dominates the middle of the novel and which shows her coming-of-age through phases similar to those Kristýna would subsequently experience and Milena will. Further complicating the novel are the infidelities that will connect them all. There are all sorts of grand pronouncements: "Art is a path toward the light, to the emancipation of man; this is something I believe in, something for which I'm willing to sacrifice everything." And dialogue: "Unhappiness is like an illness. No one can cure me of fate." But when Kristýna belatedly ruminates that "[e]verything is pulling me downward and backward," the novel's structure seems less arbitrary than it did at the outset. The revelations redeem some of the stilted writing and the characters' senses of self-importance, as the reader comes to connect with and care for these characters as more than mouthpieces for history.
