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Miloš Urban: Sedmikostelí(The Seven Churches)
O Our hero initially is nameless. His reasons are clear. He does not like his name, which has connotations which lead to him being teased. We do eventually learn his name but in the meantime we, and other characters in the book know him simply as K, which, of course, has resonances of Prague most famous writer, France Kafka. This is clearly not accidental.
He does not have a happy childhood. In fact, she does not hhave a happy life. His parents simply got married because he appeared but they are clearly not very close to one another and indeed not very loving parents. His father has affairs and when K is an adult, the father moves out. K himself makes very limited efforts to keep in touch with his parents.
He has no friends and and is not very good at school. However, he does discover an interest and that is exploring the Bohemian countryside and, in particular, the various ruins scattered around the area. Indeed, he produces a detailed. chart of the various ruins with drawings he has made and descriptions of the properties. His teachers are impressed, his fellow students less so.
He manages to get into university in Prague where he plans to study history. However, he is not very happy sharing a dormitory with other student students, particularly as they like partying and he does not. He does not like the course. What was presented to us as history was, for me, no more than an enumeration of political decisions and their consequences, lists of ruling dynasties and statistics about the wars they waged on other families
What he is interested in, is the Middle Ages and how people lived then, the ordinary people. So he takes it upon himself to explore Prague, focusing on the areas where the tourists do not go.
And then it all changes. Communism in falls and everyone seems much freer and happier, excepfor K. He does not adapt. One day there is a new teacher., Florian, a priest who had been ordained abroad during the communist era. K is not religious but soon turns religious under the influence of Florian and gets baptised. But, like virtually everything else in his life, it all goes wrong.
Florian is viciously attacked and can no longer function. K drops out of university and, wondering what to do for a living he decides to join the police. He does not fit in at police school but manages to survive and becomes a police officer.
One day he is summoned to the superintendent and told he and a colleague are being given a special job namely to guard the life of a former communist official who has been threatened. He and the colleague Junek take it in turnss and they live in a small room in her flat. The colleague gets on very well with her but Z he does not. However, one day she plies him with drink, something is not used to, and he falls asleep. When he wakes up, she is hanging by a rope from the balcony. His police career is at an end.
At the beginning of the book, well before we know all of this, he is walking by when he hears church bells ringing loudly when they shouldnot be. When entering the church he finds the bells tllning and a man inside one of the bells be used as a clapper. He calls his former colleagues and a man is a rescued, amazingly enough still alive.
We now get into some serious plot complications where it is clear the police a are at something of a loss, particularly when others have been threatened and attacked.
At this point, he comes across a giant of a man who calls himself Gmünd, who mmay or may not be of German descent but it seems to be very rich. More importantly, he shares similar views to K about medieval Prague and the condition of the churches, some of which are in avery poor state and he plans to have them repaired.
At this point K is called in by the police as a witness to the man found in the bell, Zafir, and is assigned to be something of an unofficial bodyguard to Gmünd. The police are baffled as to what is going on, but it is clear that the victims are all connected with architecture and the building trade. It is clear that the criminals are always one, if not two steps ahead of a police. As for K he learns more about the churches. He is just as lost as the police, though he suspects the police may somehow be involved.
Things get stranger and stranger. K has visions in which he seems to fall into the past, the police are behaving somewhat erratically though he is assisted by a female police officer to whom he seems to be attracted to and it is not entirely clear what?Gmünd is up to.
Other people get unwittingly involved and it is clear that there are some very unpleasant people around committing these gruesome murders. However, it seems to become more and more apparent that the dark side of Prague is coming to the fore and it too seems to have a persona of its own. For example, near a church suddenly a massive hole appears in the road and various vehicles fall in. Further exploration reveals that it may well have been a mediaeval crypt but there seems to be more going on. However, before it can be properly explored, the city fills it up
. As in any good thriller pretty well everyone is suspect, including the police, and there are various possible motives for the murders but it is not entirely clear which, if any of them is the correct one.
Firstly, this is quite simply a very good Gothic thriller. We have our suspicions early on move as to the suspects and their rationale but, as mentioned, there are various other possibilities. However, it is clear that the dark side of Prague, particularly mediaeval Prague plays a key role here and at times takes on a persona of its own. It is clear that Urban really knows his mediaeval Prague and in particular its dark side and his portrayal of it, showing a side of Prague but not only tourists probably never encounter but even the natives are not too familiar with hidden passages, secret rooms, buildings within buildings inside them and other fascinating features add to our enjoyment.
Publishing history
First published by Argo in 1998
First published in English in 2012 by Peter Owen
Translated by), Robert Russell