The Castle of Longing

Torn between what her father once was and her own feelings, Terza, and her irrepressible sister Clara, contemplate their father's forthcoming second marriage to a much younger woman with a little unease. Haunted by the past and imagery deeply rooted in Bohemian folklore, Terza draws comfort in her newly revived relationship with her father's mistress, and a mysterious handsome stranger whom she meets quite by accident. At the same time, Clara's relationships are both stormy and shallow, and she looks to her older sister to help her make sense of her own life.

As a treatise on femininity and sensuality, this work endeavours, unhurriedly, to draw a line between realism and a post-existentialist world which expiates artistic freedom from past repression. Opinions on love and immortality are expressed as anecdotes to the character's own reflections on life, and finds respite in the differences between the quiet self-determination of the central character and her incorrigible sister.

The main characters are two sisters, Terza and Clara, whose personalities differ greatly. Terza is very clear-sighted and sober, though her character can be surprisingly flexible and tolerant, especially when it comes to her relationship with her sister. Clara is incorrigible, as Terza would frequently say, and her relationships are fragile at the best of times, especially that with her current boyfriend, Rudi. Clara, on the other hand is both vivacious and outrageous and the two sisters soon find that their very different views provide both laughter and bitterness in their love/hate relationship. However, when Clara is in need of a friend and someone to fall back on it is her sister Terza who comes to the rescue.

Clara meets up with her old friend Jana, who is married to the fanatical Karel, a former boyfriend of Clara's and a reactionary whose ideals form the basis of political unrest when he, along with students in a newly formed democracy, barracade themselves in at the university ready for a violent struggle with government forces. Karel leads the students and both Clara and Terza become embroiled in the situation as they try to support Karel's wife Jana.

As the story progresses plans are being made for Terza and Clara's father to marry a woman half his age called Kirsty, which causes no end of consternation between the two sisters. During this time Terza's relationship with Franti, a man she met on the train whilst visiting her father in Geneva, grows at a steady pace. Meanwhile Clara's relationship with her boyfriend Rudi blows hot and cold and Terza cannot understand why her sister cannot hold down a reasonable relationship.

Compare this with the suave, rich back-drop of more settled European democracies and we find Terza flits languidly between both old and new worlds. But the past is never very far away. Petty jealousies, and Clara's determination to usurp her sister as their father's wedding draws ever closer, makes no pretension to hide the fact that human nature is somehow weaker under the surface than at first perceived. Deeply reflective, the book draws unhurriedly to its conclusion.