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When Mojmir Demeter, a young chef working in Prague, leaves for the remote mountains to care for his mortally sick “adoptive grandmother” Mrs Kalomova (Granny Kalomi), no one yet knows the significance of the abbreviation EBS: Erosion of Basic Substance. It stands for a strange and uncanny new epidemic spreading like wildfire first in the Czech Republic, then beyond its borders. At first victims of the infection experience an extraordinary sense of physical lightness; then, a short time later, they literally vanish into thin air, obviously painlessly and leaving no trace. Only their clothes are left behind.
Initially, however, Mojmir knows little about the drastic changes all over the country caused by the epidemic. While the isolation of the mountains protects him from the disease, people are dying wholesale, and the infection makes such swift progress that even the paramilitary organizations known as “hygienists” can do nothing to halt it. These much-feared troops intern all who have been in any contact with the sick in quarantine camps resembling prisons. No one ever comes out again. Once the electricity supply and phone network have also collapsed, Mojmir no longer has any chance of keeping up to date with the present situation. Only when old Mrs Kalomova finally dies does he go to the nearest village, where he commandeers one of the delivery vans now standing around unused, teaches himself to drive, and takes Granny Kalomi’s body down to the graveyard in a coffin.
Clearly the epidemic itself has now run its course, but the world is not as he knew it before. Only a very few people are still around, and those few are usually armed and extremely distrustful. Soon, however, Mojmir meets a deeply religious married couple, the Martins, who willingly share their survival expertise with him, and would like him to stay on as a kind of adopted son. But Mojmir wants to go back to Prague, see what’s left of his old life, and try to find out what has become of his best friend Egon. He meets the suspicious Jessica, who calls him “dog-eater” – Mojmir is of Roma gypsy origin – and the Vietnamese boy Vasek. In their different ways, the two of them have so far managed to survive alone in this apocalyptic situation. Slowly the trio develop a kind of “family life”: a couple of teenagers who do not entirely trust each other or the uncertain relationship between them, and an orphaned child who tries to hide his obvious sadness by putting up a particularly cool front, and who is secretly in love with Jessica.
As well as telling an exciting story in her novel, Iva Procházková probes boundaries. In particular, she examines potential human behaviour in extreme circumstances. Despite his unpromising start in life – he belongs to a minority group that is the target of discrimination, and he has grown up in an orphanage – Mojmir Demeter is a humorous, well-balanced, dependable young man who is touchingly ready to look after other people. Perhaps the adversity of his own early years has prepared him to face the depths to which the human mind can sink; he is very self-reliant, and well able to defend himself. Jessica, however, has difficulty in struggling with her fears, and cannot cope with the very real threat posed by violent marauders. She thus remains cautious towards Mojmir himself. Finally Vasek, who has seen his mother and siblings die, is wily, outspoken, and only occasionally lets his deep grief show. But difficult as it may be for them to trust each other at first, they have no other option in view of their desperate circumstances.
The author succeeds outstandingly well in writing a moving story without ever being sentimental, and creates suspense without resorting to lurid horror effects. She tempers even tragic situations with everyday humour, thereby making the tragedy appear realistic rather than melodramatic. Her protagonist Mojmir is also extremely credible, although I found him almost a little too likeable at times. He is an equable character, content with himself and what he does. Cooking is both his hobby and his profession, and right up to the end of the story he does not abandon his dream of opening a hotel by the Dead Sea with his best friend Egon some day. After all, it is our dreams that often keep us going through life’s difficult times …
Heike Friesel
October 2007
[Translated by Anthea Bell]
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