The book presents an almost verbatim transcript of an interview between the well-known documentary filmmaker Helena Třeštíková and the translator and writer Heda Margoliová Kovályová (1919-2010), which took place in August 2000 in the writer's apartment in Prague during the filming of a documentary about her.
It captures her authentic memories, sometimes unimaginably cruel and unbelievable, of her youth and her stay in the concentration camp, of the post-revolutionary turmoil and of the events surrounding the execution of her first husband Rudolf Margoliol. There is much information in the interview that was not included in the autobiography On Her Own Skin, which Heda Margoliová Kovályová wrote in American exile in the 1970s.
The form of the interview is also very useful - the questions of the experienced documentary filmmaker lead the narrative to topics that the interviewee herself would probably not have had the courage to talk about.
This is a powerful and readable story of an interesting and distinctive woman who responds with a distinctive detachment given by her rich life experiences, through which she comes to a remarkable equanimity.
Czech edition