A Contribution to the History of Joy

A complex mix of crime fiction, historical narrative, and feminist social commentary that exposes a decades long coverup of atrocities archived in a Prague neighborhood.

The body of a wealthy, middle-aged businessman is discovered hanging in the attic of his Old Town Prague villa. At first, everything points to suicide, but his young Widow denies the possibility. The ensuing investigation leads a Detective to a house on Petřín Hill, where three elderly women live: a yoga instructor, a film director, and a creative writing teacher. As the Detective pores through their vast archive of documents, most of which concern rape and abuse cases dating back to World War II, he begins to suspect the women of taking justice into their own hands. How far are they willing to go in their efforts to right the “raped century”?

Denemarková’s fourth novel addresses the sexualized violence that pervades all times and cultures—from Nazi crimes in Poland to mass rape in India and forced prostitution of minors in England—a universal calamity stored in the body’s memory, for which the birds are the only reliable witnesses.