The Expulsion of Gerta Schnirch: A CEERES Of Voices Conversation with acclaimed Czech author KATEŘINA TUČKOVÁ & translator VÉRONIQUE FIRKUSNY ✍🏻
Sunday, April 11 @ 2PM CT via Zoom
Register to attend online at:
https://bit.ly/2P4WDLH
In May 1945, Brno citizens of German nationality were sent on the so-called Brno Death March and expelled from the city. Gerta Schnirch and her infant daughter join the exodus. Gerta survives the grueling march and forced labor in South Moravia, but struggles on her return to Czechoslovakia. This novel asks painful questions about guilt, revenge and forgiveness between Czechs and Germans and depicts a disturbed relationship between a mother and her daughter.
About the Author
Kateřina Tučková is a Czech play-wright, publicist, biographer, art historian, exhibition curator, and
bestselling author of Gerta and The Zítková Goddesses. She has won the Magnesia Litera Award (for both books), the Brno City Award for literature, and the Josef Škvorecký Award. She also received the Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Award by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and of the Premio Libro d’Europa at the Book Fair in Salerno, Italy. Photo by Lenka Hatašová.
About the Translator
Born in Bern, Switzerland, Véronique Firkusny grew up trilingual in Czech, English and French. Passionate about literature, languages and music, she devotes time to projects in all three areas. Her many Czech to English translations include works by Michal Ajvaz, Daniela Fischerová, Daniela
Hodrová, and Kateřina Tučková. Photo by Steve J. Sherman.
About the Interlocutor
Cheryl Stephenson brings together theoretical and historical perspectives in her work on Central and East European culture and media. Her courses at the University of Chicago focus on Czech and Russian language and literature, film and animation, and the history of pop culture.
About the Series
CEERES, pronounced /ˈsirēz/, is the acronym for the University of Chicago Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies. Together with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, we are delighted to announce the launch of the CEERES of Voices Event Series, an author-centered series of readings and conversations on books from or about Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Eurasia, and the Caucasus. The books being discussed are identified in a various ways: through publishers’ contacts with the bookstore or through faculty requests to CEERES to host the author.
