A Thousand Years of Solitude

The New Myth of the Birth of Prague

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At the end of every age, three sisters meet. They will flock to the womb of one woman like three crows.” Thus begins the story of how the age of giants and wizards broke into the age of humans, in a small country in the middle of Europe – the story of the novel A Thousand Years of Solitude.

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In that small country, three sisters once ruled together. The oldest and most powerful spoke to the old world under human feet, judged and made decisions. The middle one spoke to the green world of the forests: she healed, performed ceremonies and cared for all living things. The youngest was the freest, most compassionate, most open to what was to come.

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It was written that with their rule the end of the old times would come, and so it happened.

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The novel looks at major social issues from a female perspective, discusses public and intimate, natural and human, and in a strong female voice tells a social epic, loosely inspired by Czech mythology, about the pain of the end of one world, and the fragility of new beginnings. It depicts a rich – and ever-present – the world before man, when he first conquers it. It tells of women who succumb to the sight of their superiority and power, women who are incapable of change. But it is also the story of one of them who manages to overcome the border between worlds.

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Original illustration: Jindra Čapek, http://www.jindracapek.cz