Gerta: A Novel

The award-winning novel by Czech author Kateina Tukováher first to be translated into Englishabout the fate of one woman and the pursuit of forgiveness in a divided postwar world.

1945. Allied forces liberate Nazi-occupied Brno, Moravia. For Gerta Schnirch, daughter of a Czech mother and a German father aligned with Hitler, its not deliverance; its a sentence. She has been branded an enemy of the state. Caught in the changing tides of a war that shattered her familyand her innocenceGerta must obey the official order: she, along with all ethnic Germans, is to be expelled from Czechoslovakia. With nothing but the clothes on her back and an infant daughter, shes herded among thousands, driven from the only home shes ever known. But the injustice only makes Gerta stronger, more empowered, and more resolved to seek justice. Her journey is a relentless quest for a seemingly impossible forgiveness. And one day, she will return.

Spanning decades and generations, Kateina Tukovás breathtaking novel illuminates a long-neglected episode in Czech history. One of exclusion and prejudice, of collective shame versus personal guilt, all through the eyes of a charismatic woman whose courage will affect all the lives shes touched. Especially that of the daughter she loved, fought for, shielded, and would come to inspire.