“The slightest gesture makes up our history.” Kalfar’s debut novel takes us to the stars and back while questioning whether our fate lies within ourselves. Jakub, a Czech astronaut, is sent on a suicide mission to investigate a dust cloud around Venus. In orbit, he is persecuted by his own thoughts, by the sins of his father during his country’s bloody past, and by his love for Lenka, the woman he has left behind on Earth. It is a joyfully intellectual book; the whole narrative could be read as a dream, as a clever paradigm in ways that resonate with David Mitchell. The novel is as much about the exploration of space and the psyche as it is about the human heart, equally fathomless, equally inexhaustible. Jakub returns the ashes of his beloved grandfather to the stars, reminding us we all return to dust. Despite this cold fact, or maybe because of it, Kalfar’s story is about the human capacity for curiosity, love and – above all – hope.
