Les Dernières Déesses
In the Czech Republic, Dora Idesová inherits a legacy of healers known as 'goddesses,' women who wielded love and curses. Growing up, she dismissed these tales until her studies revealed the dark history of witchcraft trials and Nazi investigations tied to her village. Dora uncovers how these women were pawns in power struggles, forcing her to confront a tragic family destiny. This novel brilliantly blends history, folklore, and fiction to explore the hidden past of the White Carpathians.
Dora's aunt, known as "Surmena," one of the last Žítková goddesses (folk healers); raises Dora and her brother and is later persecuted and institutionalized by the secret police during Czechoslovak normalization.
Dora's younger brother, born with a physical and mental disability; after their mother's death he is placed in an institution in Brno, which Dora regularly visits.
Yes. The Czech original, Žítkovské bohyně, was translated into English by Andrew Oakland and published as "The Last Goddess." This edition of the catalog is the French translation, Les Dernières Déesses, by Eurydice Antolin.
The novel is fiction, but it is grounded in real history and geography: Žítková is an actual village in the White Carpathian mountains on the Czech-Slovak border, historically home to folk healers known locally as "goddesses" who faced real witchcraft accusations in the 17th century and later scrutiny from both Nazi-era researchers and Czechoslovakia's communist secret police.