Radka Denemarková: Kobold / Schokoladenblut

The Czech Republic is the Guest of Honor at the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair, and Radka Denemarková is one of the country’s best-known authors. Two of her novels will be published in German in 2026—the focus of the reading is still to be determined. The author will read and speak in German.

In“Kobold,”Radka Denemarkováweaves together two stories that seem contradictory at first glance but are interconnected in many ways: The focus is on people whose lives are shaped by love, violence, family experiences, and societal expectations. The characters struggle with the consequences of their backgrounds and grow up in an environment that leaves little room for weakness, vulnerability, or being different. Their personal suffering stems not only from individual fates but also reflects the problems of a society increasingly marked by exclusion, harshness, and ideological conflicts. As the protagonists’ life paths intersect, the novel asks how people can preserve their humanity under such conditions.

Hovering over it all is the mysterious presence of the “kobolds”—a dark, elusive force that seems to influence events and repeatedly encounters the characters.

With great narrative power, Denemarková weaves together personal stories with social commentary, exploring the impact of power, ideologies, and interpersonal relationships on the lives of individuals.

What’s particularly exciting: The book can be read from the beginning or from the end...

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In her new major novel,*Chocolate Blood*, Radka Denemarková reimagines 19th-century history and shows how power and capital continue to shape our thoughts and actions to this day. She weaves the life stories of historical figures into a striking panorama of violence, patriarchy, and exploitation—and reveals how closely the power structures of the 19th century are linked to the crises of the present:

In the mid-19th century, the Czech author Božena Němcová writes a patriotic fairy tale whose message does not even convince her. At the same time, George Sand is living out a radically different model of female authorship in France—independent, self-determined, and defying social conventions. While Europe was grappling with national identities, J. D. Rockefeller was building his economic empire on the other side of the Atlantic with oil, thereby laying the foundation for a new era of global power.

Radka Denemarková, born in 1968, is a Czech author, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and translator of German literature. She is the only Czech author to have won the Magnesia Litera Prize four times. Her works have been translated into more than 20 languages. For her novel *A Contribution to the History of Joy*, she was awarded the 2019 Spycher Literature Prize in Leuk; for *Hours of Lead*, she received the 2022 Styria State Literature Prize; the 2022 Brücke Berlin Prize (together with her translator), and the 2024 Franz Kafka Odradek Prize. In 2023, she was elected to the German Academy for Language and Literature.