The Way Through the Bleak Woods

The shifting narrative of Cesta pustym lesem centres on Dr Holoubek, a dentist who moves from Vienna to a remote corner of what was then a crumbling Austro-Hungarian empire. Why he makes the move is not quite clear. Once there, he becomes a disinterested observer of the frictions between the area’s inhabitants. Gradually he becomes sucked into this world, chiefly on account of his involvement with a local girl Anna, whose liberal attitude to sleeping with lumberjacks leads the deeply conservative local population to conclude that she is responsible for a spate of thefts. Anna repays Holoubek’s kindness in the only way she knows, with her body – but not quite with her heart. Their frolics arouse the envy of a local lad, Teda, who has long since been an admirer of Anna. The conflict between the two men is resolved when World War I starts and the two men are called up, leaving Anna to look elsewhere for love. —Andrew James Horton, Central Europe Review