In the mid-19th century, the writer Bozena Nemcová sits in her small study, laboriously crafting a patriotic fairy tale whose message she herself doesn't believe. George Sand, her French contemporary, defied the constraints of convention and wrote novels with a light touch. On the other side of the Atlantic, J.D. Rockefeller, the world's first billionaire, founded his empire on a thick, brown raw material. In her new masterpiece, Radka Denemarková brilliantly recounts the story of the 19th century and its protagonists: global, highly topical, and ingenious. Biography (Radka Denemarková) Radka Denemarková, born in 1968, studied German and Czech philology in Prague, where she received her doctorate in 1997. She teaches at the Institute of Czech Literature in Prague, translates from German, and works as a freelance journalist. In 2011, Radka Denemarková was awarded the Usedom Literary Prize. New product