Iva Procházková:  The Naked

A hot summer, Berlin and a rural idyll in the borderland between Saxony and the Czech Republic: This is the backdrop against which the quite different stories of five young people unfold. There is highly talented Sylva, who finds school utterly boring and loves to spend all her time out in the open nature. Niklas would like to become a film-maker but gets bogged down in the drug scene with beautiful Evita. While her quest for absolute bliss has taken her too far down the spiral of drug abuse, Niklas manages to break free just in time. Filip is in love with Sylva, but his intellectual manner makes him his own worst enemy. It is not until another girl takes Sylva’s place that he manages to overcome his inhibition. Robin tries in vain to live up to his father’s expectations, denying his inner self all the time. Only when he meets Sylva does he finally learn to give rein to his own feelings.

"How puberty feels, how painful and helpless – only few authors have described this in as sensitive a manner as Iva Procházková […] Iva Procházková demonstrates the qualities of a good book for young adults in an unspectacular way: a striking story, that immediately concerns the reader, an enthralling language that creates an appetite for reading and an ending that inspires the imagination and moves the heart." Deutschlandradio Kultur, 7^th January 2009

NOMINATED FOR THE GERMAN YOUTH 
LITERATURE AWARD 2009 (in two categories)