The Hours of Lead

The same decisive sentence affects the fate of several families of different generations from European countries and social classes. A Czech businessman, his wife and teenage daughter, a Russian diplomat, a French literary figure, a calligraphy student, a chef, and a number of other characters. And their family traumas, midlife crises, burnout, or puberty. Pilgrims and travelers who have left for China to sort out their lives, but their world continues to fall apart. They lose something irretrievably and can’t understand it themselves. They are searching for a anchor point in their past life, but they don’t know what to remember.

And just as in their personal stories there is a dramatic turning point, something essential breaks and changes in the fate of all of us. The old world of Europe ends and no one knows what is beginning. And just as each character in the novel experiences a critical situation as an existential and personal experience, we all experience the “hour of lead” together. People withdraw into themselves and an era of resigned apathy, demoralization, an era of gray totalitarian consumerism begins on a daily basis. But there is still action. It’s just important to watch the signs.