Launch of the novel "Uncle Hana": Seen from the orphaned pain of a 9-year-old girl

In November, the Vietnamese Women's Publishing House published the novel Uncle Hana , by author Alena Mornštajnová, translated by translator Binh Slavická.

The 332-page book, which won the Czech Republic Book Award in 2018, made the name of female writer Alena.

The story is told in three parts and spans two separate timelines, taking readers through the town of Meziříčí, the prison in Terezín, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp from 1940 to 1950.

Ra mắt tiểu thuyết Bác Hana: Nhìn từ nỗi đau mồ côi của cô bé 9 tuổi - 1 — Cover of the novel "Uncle Hana" (Photo: Vietnamese Women Publishing House).

In 1954, in the small Czech town of Meziříčí, 9-year-old Mira senses "danger lurking deep beneath the city."

"I was barely nine years old when I became completely alone. My life stopped like the clocks hanging on the wall in my father's shop. All I felt was longing, terrible fear of the future, and endless loneliness," the book reads.

The first nine chapters focus on Mira, who is curious about her family's past. Little does she know that for her living relatives, the past is often too painful to talk about.

As Mira uncovers the truth about her family history, the reasons for Aunt Hana's behavior, her frail appearance, and the tattoo on her wrist are also revealed.

"People told me I had to forget, that I had to start living again. Maybe I could forget the hunger and the cold during the hours standing at roll call, maybe I could forget the pain of broken bones.

But how can I forget the corpses hanging from electric fences, the bodies torn apart by dogs, and the dislocated shoulders of men and women hung by their arms behind their backs, just to warn others?

How can I forget the endless lines of children, women, and men, who went straight from the train to the gas chambers? How can I forget the despair in Truda's eyes, when she learned that her children had been taken to the gas chambers?

People advised me to forget, because they didn't want to hear what I had to say. They didn't need to be so afraid. I can't forget, those memories are forever engraved in my mind, like the number tattooed on my left arm. But I can't say those memories out loud," excerpt from the book.

Ra mắt tiểu thuyết Bác Hana: Nhìn từ nỗi đau mồ côi của cô bé 9 tuổi - 2 — Writer Alena Mornštajnová (Photo: Marianne).

In the second part of the novel, the reader travels back in time to the days of occupied Europe.

The final chapters tell the story of Jewish survivors - who suffered terrible psychological trauma - as they struggled to reintegrate into society after the war.

What these fates have in common is guilt. They feel guilty that they are the only ones who survived. They return to a world that does not want them, a world that does not understand them.

The novel Aunt Hana by female writer Alena Mornštajnová is a profound testament to the pain and trauma that permeates from generation to generation.

Alena Mornštajnová , born in 1963 in Valašské Meziříčí, graduated in English and Czech languages from the University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. She is currently an English teacher and translator.

The novel Uncle Hana won the Česká kniha (Czech Book Award) in 2018.

This is also the work that made Alena one of the most beloved writers of contemporary Czech literature.

Translator Binh Slavická was born in 1954 in Hung Yen. She graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, ČVUT University in Prague (1979), and received a PhD in History and Ethnology, Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University in Prague (2016).

She lives and works in the Czech Republic, is a lecturer in Vietnamese Studies at the Institute of Asian Studies, Charles University.

Translator Binh Slavická is the only Vietnamese person to be awarded the Gratias agit 2022 for his great contributions to spreading Czech culture and people abroad.

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