There is no ideal age to be an orphan. Being older does not make one more adept at coping with grief.  Pushing feelings aside or running from them only works for so long. Like a hunter waiting for an opportune moment to strike, grief stalks us and forces us to confront our feelings. 

Such is the case when we meet Marie, the protagonist of Lucie Faulerová’s novel Deathmaiden. A woman in her twenties aboard a train, alone in a compartment. This train ride offers a window seat to the tormenting thoughts that follow her about her sister’s suicide. Why did she do it? Was it her fault? 

This is a journey of self-discovery that takes her (and you, dear reader) through richly detailed and surprising terrain. There is an immersive quality about the writing that enables us to feel the train’s every jerky movement, and Marie’s every traumatic thought. 

Travel stories are often metaphoric undertakings, and this work is no exception. It does not flow in a linear fashion. Flashes of memories are interspersed with fragmented, non-standard, rhythmic passages. Snippets from different periods of her life allow you to form an overview of what has happened to her, and where this train journey may lead. 

This is a work loaded with heavy topics. Suicide, harm, depression, an individual’s relationship to death. This tale is not, however, altogether sombre. Sparks of genuine human warmth radiate through the fog, making the sheen of sibling affection shine all the brighter. 

Faulerová gives the reader an inside view of a person struggling to find purpose after incomprehensible events. A family mosaic travelling down a rocky road. But as the journey winds on, its destination could be a cathartic passage through grief and heartbreak, and life. 

Lucie Faulerová is a writer, editor and aspiring screenwriter. Born in 1989, her debut novel Lapači prachu (Dust Catchers) was nominated for several awards, including the 2017 Magnesia Litera Award for prose and the Jiří Orten Award. Her second novel, Deathmaiden, won the 2021 EU Prize for Literature for Czech publications. It was also nominated for the Magnesia Litera Award.