Preparation of memory

"Forgetting is often harder than remembering."

At 3:37 AM, the novel's protagonist was awakened by a phone call, and the late-night conversation with his mother disturbed the hitherto calm surface of his memories. He returns to his maturation period in Přerov, Moravia, to the experiences of a young queer boy growing up in a conservative industrial town, and in a family that is not well-off. No matter how the surroundings changed, they punished difference. The protagonist literally dissects his memory. This resembles the process when we look at old photographs and search for tiny details, which often reveal much more than what is obvious at first glance. The protagonist talks about his mother, father, and grandfather, about bullying, alcoholism, or coming to terms with his different sexual orientation. He dissects into individual pieces not only his own memories but also the entire collective memory of his family.

This fragile debut is a unique attempt to introduce themes of world literature into the Czech context. Stylistically, it perfectly aligns with the works of authors such as Ocean Vuong or Édouard Louis.

"A non-black-and-white testimony about strength and weakness. It illuminates the places where we are exclusively alone with ourselves." Linda Bartošová

Marek Torčík (1993) is a poet, prose writer, and publicist. Originally from Přerov, he lives in Prague, where he studied English-language literatures and cultures at Charles University. In 2016, he published a collection of poems "Rhizomes," after which he published his prose and poetic works mainly in magazines. In 2018 and 2020, he was one of the ten finalists of the Czech-Slovak competition "Poems SK/CZ". His debut novel "Dissection of Memory" (2023) brought the author two prestigious Czech awards – "Magnesia Litera" for the best prose book of the year and the Jiří Orten Award for the best book by an author under 30.