Overview

“The Attempt is historical fiction at its best. Through its narrator’s archival approach to his material, the book explores the intimate lives of a pair of fervent idealists, as well as a robber baron and his family. The result is a vivid, poignant narrative about political upheaval, both in the past and the present.” —SIRI HUSTVEDT, author of The Blazing World When a Czech historian becomes convinced he’s the illegitimate great-grandson of an infamous anarchist who attempted an assassination while living in the United States, he travels to New York to investigate. Arriving in Manhattan during the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement, his research takes him further back into the past—from the Pittsburgh home of a nineteenth-century US industrialist to 1920s Europe, where a celebrated anarchist couple is on the run from the law. Based on the lives of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, The Attempt is a novel about the legacy of radical politics and relationships—one that traverses centuries and continents to deliver a moving, powerful story of personal and political transformation. Magdaléna Platzová is the author of six books, including two novels published in English: Aaron’s Leap, a Lidové Noviny Book of the Year Award finalist, and The Attempt, a Czech Book Award finalist. Her fiction has also appeared in A Public Space and Words Without Borders. Platzová grew up in the Czech Republic, studied in Washington, DC, and England, received her MA in Philosophy at Charles University in Prague, and has taught at New York University’s Gallatin School. She is now a freelance journalist based in Lyon, France.

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9781942658085

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Reviews

Czech Book Award Finalist Masterful... In the tradition of Prus, Kundera, and Vonnegut ... [Platzova's] writing style is varied, sparing, insightful, and at times nothing short of poetic. Enthusiastically recommended. --Historical Novels Review Platzova's ultra-restrained curation of her material, translated with equal restraint and discrimination by Alex Zucker ... is a powerfully distilled meditation on the meaning of freedom, a ferocious complexity lurking beneath its smooth and hypnotically readable surface. --Words Without Borders A vivid reconstruction of the life of Andrei B. and Louise G., their deportation, radicalization, and enduring love. Between this and 2014's Aaron's Leap, Platzova is on a roll, telling rich stories of European history and the 20th century's cumbrous fallout. --Publishers Weekly Encompasses history, anarchy, and love ... bridg[ing] a century of social foment. --Kirkus Reviews The Attempt is historical fiction at its best. Through its narrator's archival approach to his material, the book explores the intimate lives of a pair of fervent idealists, as well as a robber baron and his family. The result is a vivid, poignant narrative about political upheaval, both in the past and the present. --SIRI HUSTVEDT, author of The Blazing World In her resonant and lucid tale, elegantly translated by Alex Zucker, Platzova weaves together the story of her hero's search and an imaginary reconstruction of the passionate history that haunts him, and suggests the enduring power of ideals even after they have been shattered. --CALEB CRAIN, author of Necessary Errors Magdalena Platzova's lively prose keeps readers on tenterhooks while tracing the troubled history of an industrialist's family and fortune and the rise and fall of anarchism. --EDITH KURZWEIL, former editor of Partisan Review and author of Full Circle: A Memoir [A] carefully crafted story, written in a lucid and refined language... The Attempt examines the perennial questions of social order, sacrifice and self-sacrifice, freedom, and acceptability of violence as the conditions for change. These questions catch us by surprise in our post-utopian times, especially when an East European author of Platzova's generation raises them. But [she] succeeds in her attempt to bring these questions to life and show their relevance; she does it without ideology and with urgency, which make the novel a pleasure to read. --VERONIKA TUCKEROVA, Preceptor in Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

Czech Book Award Finalist [A] carefully crafted story, written in a lucid and refined language... The Attempt examines the perennial questions of social order, sacrifice and self-sacrifice, freedom, and acceptability of violence as the conditions for change. These questions catch us by surprise in our post-utopian times, especially when an East European author of Platzova's generation raises them. But [she] succeeds in her attempt to bring these questions to life and show their relevance; she does it without ideology and with urgency, which make the novel a pleasure to read. --VERONIKA TUCKEROVA, Preceptor in Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

Czech Book Award Finalist [A] carefully crafted story, written in a lucid and refined language. . . . The Attempt examines the perennial questions of social order, sacrifice and self-sacrifice, freedom, and acceptability of violence as the conditions for change. These questions catch us by surprise in our post-utopian times, especially when an East European author of Platzova s generation raises them. But [she] succeeds in her attempt to bring these questions to life and show their relevance; she does it without ideology and with urgency, which make the novel a pleasure to read. VERONIKA TUCKEROVA, Preceptor in Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

Author Information

Magdalena Platzova is the author of six books, including two novels published in English: Aaron's Leap, a Lidove Noviny Book of the Year Award finalist, and The Attempt, a Czech Book Award finalist. Her fiction has also appeared in A Public Space and Words Without Borders. Platzova grew up in the Czech Republic, studied in Washington, DC, and England, received her MA in Philosophy at Charles University in Prague, and has taught at New York University's Gallatin School. She is now a freelance journalist based in Lyon, France.

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