Bear dance

The novel "The Bear Dance" (2019) is a bitter and, at the same time, funny portrait of the last months of the life of Jaroslav Hasek (the author of Švejk) in the secluded estate of Lipnice nad Sázava in 1922. Among the rains and damp autumn mist, memories of talent, weaknesses and hidden traumas come to life: from a mad provocateur to a lonely genius. Not just a biography, but a mosaic of the era, where reality is intertwined with fiction, and laughter masks pain.
The Bear Dance is a metaphor for the absurdity, awkwardness and chaos in Hasek's life: he is like the bear dancing in a cage in the provincial town of Lipnice, where he spends his last months trying to finish "Švejk", but plunges into self-destruction due to illness, drunkenness and conflicts with his surroundings.