Praise for Petra Hůlová “Petra Hůlová is one of the most distinctive and outspoken Czech writers of her generation.” —Project Plume
Praise for The Long Version
“Petra Hůlová has written a book of disillusionment and reconciliation with passionate feminism, with a particular focus on the body’s physiology.” —PETR FISCHER, literary critic and columnist
“A striking piece of self-criticism that packs a punch. A harsh, bruising and fierce confession of the heroine—an ageing intellectual, mother of two children and lover of many men—uttered in one breath. And so it reads.” —ALENA MACHONINOVÁ, Russian studies scholar
“Can a woman wake up one day and say #MeToo twenty years after the fact? Or does she have to be a member of the #MeToo generation to do that? An extraordinary novel about culture wars in our everyday life.” —TEREZA MATĚJČKOVÁ, philosopher
“Petra Hůlová’s novel gives us the opportunity to experience the changing of two generations, during which the younger group goes into a blind frenzy and sets off on a crusade to condemn the older generation.” —S. D. CH., playwright
Praise for The Movement
“One part Animal Farm, one part The Handmaid’s Tale, one part A Clockwork Orange, and (maybe) one part Frankenstein, Czech writer Hůlová’s novel dismantles the patriarchy and replaces it with a terrifying alternative.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A thought-provoking and disturbing dystopian tale of a feminist revolution.” —Publishers Weekly
“Hůlová’s provocative satire of a feminist future challenges and unsettles in equal parts.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Hůlová wants her readers uncomfortable, and succeeds beautifully, distorting and exaggerating admirable aspirations, asking what we are willing to sacrifice for a better society, and wondering what the New World should look like.” —Calvert Journal
“With echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale but putting the women in charge, The Movement beckons us into a brave new world where men are institutionalised and re-educated—by any means necessary—to value women’s inner worth. The Movement challenges and unsettles, offering a candid glimpse of the underbelly of feminist utopia, and raising important ethical questions about how far we might want or have to go in order to secure a truly equal world. Hůlová’s distinctive voice is crystallised in Alex Zucker’s fierce and flawless translation: this unapologetically provocative story is simultaneously a clarion call, a feminist manifesto, and a warning of the dangers lurking in both the old world and the new.” —HELEN VASSALLO, Translating Women
“In a dystopian future where women rule, society is re-educated to teach men—and women—that women should be valued for traits other than their appearance or age. The novel is dark and satirical; while feminism is in the foreground, the author somehow manages a balancing act between manifesto and critique.” —Lithub
“Hůlová’s story can be read primarily as a timeless fable about how the best of human intentions always end up paving the road to some totalitarian hell.” —Dublin Review of Books