Radka Denemarková

Beijing is the place of longing for a group of Europeans who come to China to find themselves and to set their lives on a new course. But the possibilities for their own development are rigidly limited in the communist country. Their encounters with Chinese dissidents put their values to the test, and they all come to a dramatic turning point in their lives. The focus here is on a young Czech writer who stands up for democratic values and becomes a moral guiding star for a Chinese student. Reading philosophical texts together encourages the young woman to political resistance – with fatal consequences.

In her novel Hours of Lead (2022),Dr. Radka Denemarková, one of the most important contemporary voices in Czech literature, describes the country she is no longer allowed to enter: because of her criticism of the regime and her friendship with dissidents, she was punished with a life-long ban on entering China.
Denemarková, born in 1969, lives in Prague as an author, translator and publicist. Her works have won numerous awards and have been translated into more than 20 languages.

In the series China