The prose of debut author Petra Soukupová significantly deviates from the context of contemporary Czech literature. At the center of the author's narrative is the life story of several protagonists: ordinary people formally connected by family ties, yet very distant from each other on a human level. Their stories intersect fully and authentically only once: during a more or less randomly created holiday trip to the sea. In form and thought, this prose refers to Virginia Woolf and her now-classic prose To the Lighthouse. However, it is not an imitative formal exercise: from the author's narrative, one can read (given her age) a surprisingly profound experience of the disintegration of interpersonal relationships and the impossibility of meaningful communication even among the closest. Pavel Janoušek. For her debut To the Sea, Petra Soukupová received the Jiří Orten Award and was nominated for the Josef Škvorecký Award and the Magnesia Litera Award.
