At the beginning of the 20th century, the remote mountain village of St. Georg is a place where miracles are part of everyday life: people talk to saints, walk on water, and whistle stones in half. But slowly, the inhabitants begin to sense that the time of great technological change has come, which will replace their traditional miracles. Odysseus, a native of the village who was previously believed to be dead, returns and helps the village prepare for the impending upheavals. However, excitement is brought by an administrative inspection in the form of Franz Rechnitz from the capital. While the young imperial notary wants to lead St. Georg “properly” into the new century, the miracles that still work must be kept secret from him. Hlaučo plays with motifs of magical realism. With a love of detail and subtle, sometimes dry humor, he tells a polyphonic tale of a world on the threshold of modernity and the great narratives of the past.

In 2025, he won two Magnesia Literary Awards: “Book of the Year” and “Debut of the Year.”

Lettrétage, the Czech Center Berlin, and Anthea Verlag cordially invite you to a reading and discussion with Czech author Miroslav Hlaučo. Together, we will enter the world of his novel Pentecost – Memories of the End of the World. To a place where miracles are still part of everyday life, yet their disappearance is already palpable.

In conversation with the author, insights are revealed into the novel, religious motifs and characters, and the question of what is lost when the world is reorganized—and what perhaps only becomes visible as a result.

An event organized by Anthea Verlag in collaboration with the Czech Center Berlin.