Join award-winning Czech author Petra Hůlová on her North American tour celebrating the English publication of her novel Nejvyšší karta. Published as The Long Version by World Editions in a translation by Alex Zucker, the novel will be presented at events across the United States and Canada, including European Literature Night 2026 in New York, where Hůlová will represent Czechia.
Petra Hůlová
Petra Hůlová is a Czech novelist and playwright whose work explores gender, identity, and social change. She has received several major Czech literary awards, including the Magnesia Litera, the Josef Škvorecký Award, and the Jiří Orten Award. Her debut novel, Paměť mojí babičce, was translated into English by Alex Zucker as All This Belongs to Me. His translation won the American Literary Translators Association’s National Translation Award.
Hůlová studied language, culture, and anthropology in Prague, Ulaanbaatar, and New York and was a Fulbright scholar in the United States. Her ten novels and three plays have been translated into thirteen languages. She lives in Prague and regularly contributes commentary to the Czech press. Her latest novel published in English, The Long Version, explores feminism, desire, and generational tensions in the age of #MeToo.
Alex Zucker
Alex Zucker is an award-winning translator of Czech literature. In addition to Petra Hůlová’s Nejvyšší karta, published by World Editions as The Long Version, he has translated works by Jáchym Topol, Bianca Bellová, Heda Margolius Kovály, and other authors. He is a founding member of the National Writers Union’s Literary Translators Division.
Who gets to decide what our past means?
In The Long Version, Czech writer Sylvie Novak, now in her early fifties, is preparing to promote a collection of feminist essays when her teenage daughter, Judita, discovers her old journals. Their pages reveal Sylvie’s youthful relationship with a much older writer—an experience that mother and daughter interpret in radically different ways.
Judita sees her mother’s past primarily in terms of harm; Sylvie resists an interpretation that leaves little room for her own memories and desires. Meanwhile, the man Sylvie loves turns his attention to a younger woman, leaving her to confront aging, her changing attractiveness, and her sense of self.
Moving between generations and competing versions of the past, The Long Version examines the contradictions of feminism and the enduring machismo of Eastern European dissident culture. Hůlová asks how we might understand one another across deep differences of opinion—and whether reconciliation is possible in a polarized world.
Nejvyšší karta
English title: The Long Version
Translated into English by Alex Zucker
World Editions, September 2026
Tour Schedule
Sunday, October 25 | 1:30 PM
Vancouver Writers Festival — Vancouver, Canada
Women’s Voices from Europe
Petra Hůlová joins Carolina Pihelgas and Camille de Peretti in a discussion moderated by Anna Ling Kaye.
Tuesday, October 27
Washington, DC area
Petra Hůlová appears with translator Alex Zucker at an event co-organized by The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, the Embassy of the Czech Republic, and the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center.
Wednesday, October 28 | 6:00–11:00 PM
European Literature Night 2026 — New York, NY
Meet Petra Hůlová, this year’s Czech guest, during an evening celebrating contemporary European literature.
Free tickets
Thursday, October 29
Brookline Booksmith — Brookline, MA
An author appearance in the Transnational Literature Series.
Sunday, November 1
Victoria College, University of Toronto — Toronto, Canada
A panel discussion featuring Lee Hee-joo and Petra Hůlová.
Additional venue information and registration links will be added as they become available.
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