Who was the woman I love Kafka? Christine says we must know her story

Twelve years ago, Canadian writer Christine was broken in appreciation and lived in England, when the journalism of the press bearing the name of Melina Jesinska.

She did not hear her appreciation before, so she started drilling – and she learned that Jesenská was a brave journalist, translator and a measure of the Nazi regime.

However, in history, Jesenská is often remembered as Franz Kafka’s lover.

His work was translated from German to Czech, and emotional correspondence began in the end to an affair.

While Kafka’s messages to Gisenska are immortalized in the book Messages to MelinaHer responses were not found.

“I wanted not to know the name of Kafka’s lover,” he said. Bokends with Mattea Roach. “I wanted to know the name of her salary.”

That desire sparked a novel in appreciation, Messages to KafkaThat shares the story of Jesenská and gives a voice to a woman often overwhelmed history.

respect He also wrote the short story collection Syrian Charity Ladies Association. She was In the long list to CBC short story award In 2015.

The author of Toronto joined Roche Bokends To discuss the strength of the book and the moments of charity that she had during her research.

Mattea Roach: What about the story of Melina Jesenská in particular, which found it very convincing to turn into a novel?

Kristen’s estimated: One of the main things was that she was present during the time when a woman was winning her livelihood as a writer who was very trivial and unexpected.

She is a Czech, married woman, who lives in Vienna at the end of the Great War. If you do not die in the Great War, the Spanish influenza epidemic has ended with you. The Hungarian Austrian Empire has collapsed. There is a deficiency of fuel, charcoal deficiency, bread lines and inflation is through the ceiling.

The men return from the forefront with the faces of corrected in a hurry, the ends of Phantom, and the respected women sell their bodies on the street to support their families. And Melina is like, “You know what? I will be an author.” It takes a lot of character and a lot of Moxie.

In your novel, we see the first time that Jesenská and Kafka met this is the meeting in a cafe in Prague. There is this immediate mutual attraction. What is raised between them and what do you think they are attracted together?

I think Melina looked at itself in a way that was not represented in her position in society. It really came from a well to do the family in Prague. Her father performed oral surgery and when she decided to marry, he was against her father’s desires because she married a Jewish man and so she had to run to Vienna.

But while she was living in Prague, she had broken the elbows with intellectuals and social circles, reading and writing for the Czech society and the Bohemian community at that time.

When I moved to Vienna, it was broken. Her husband did not really share it with her, so she had to involve luggage at the train station just to meet her needs. It was incredibly intellectual. Her aunt was also a Czech newspapers and magazines.

So I think she felt, “I don’t deserve to work here at this train station. I deserve to express my thoughts, feelings and intelligence in the written word.”

So when she is in Prague while she is in Cafe Arco, which was a famous cafe in the center of Prague where all the Czech intellectuals used to hold on to him, and I think that I felt that it was supposed to be. Kafka, at this point, is not the famous name we know now, but it is well known within the Czech and German circles at this stage. He read well enough, so this type of meeting felt.

It was, “Well, I met my match, I met intellectual equality.” Through this, it has been shown to be sexual and sexual appeal.

YOU spent four years searching for the novel before it started writing, which included many trips to Vienna and Berg to be in the places that lived Melina. Can you talk a little about this process?

I searched through the records of the census and the voter lists and raised the military files. I met one of her biography. I took notes in all museums. I had to become a researcher primarily on the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and also responsible for that. There were a lot of visits to detention camps.

I discovered some things on the site that were not in any text that I encountered. The biggest thing was that when Melina was arrested by Gestapo in 1939, she was arrested in its last title, which was literally four minutes walk from the grave of Kafka.

He died 15 years ago by the time she was arrested. So when I realized, walking on this street, he was buried there, you should be a choice. She could have lived anywhere in Prague. This was somewhat on the outskirts of Prague, so why do you choose to live near the new Jewish cemetery?

I know that you also traveled to Vienna for about a month during the process of writing the manuscript and found a similar and exciting relationship between you and Melina. Can you talk about this story and what is what this discovery felt?

When I discovered that there was a month’s chance to sit in the heart of Vienna, I jumped on it. The house is located in one of the streets called Lerchenefelder Straße, MILNA and her first husband, Ernest Pollack, he lived in the same street. But it is a really long street, so I didn’t think much about it.

But when I got home, I was literally across the street from the apartment where she lived when she was compatible with Kafka. You are very excited.

While I was there, I was also taking care of this dog. So every time I was taking the dog on a picnic, I was walking next to the apartment of Melina and I will be like, “Hello, Melina”.

Then, once, I was walking, and the front door was to the block of the apartment where she lived open. I washed the puppy dog ​​and I like, “We go.”

Obviously, I was unable to enter her apartment, but in the book, I describe it up and down in the stairs. I can describe it because I was in this stairs. I know how it seemed. It was a pleasure to walk her street and see her neighborhood.

It was very exciting, and I think this excitement is about that moment in time.

This interview was released for length and clarity. It was produced by Katy Swailis.