Selection from the forthcoming books

Magdaléna Rychetská

The book introduces the situation and development of the Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of China from its foundation in 1949 to the present (2022). It provides both historical context and contemporary information about the Chinese Catholics. It examines the diverse groups of Catholics established in the territory of the People’s Republic of China belonging to both the official state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and believers in the so-called underground church, which is not sanctioned by the Chinese authorities. The book examines the political and social dilemmas facing the church under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

To be published in summer 2025

Andrea Štěpánková

Title in English: From Fear to Acceptance. The Anabaptists in Moravia in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Anabaptists represented a specific social element of the early modern Moravian society. Their religious and social nonconformity pushed them to the very edge of society in consequence of which they were feared and persecuted. But in early modern Moravia, they were allowed to form a unique community and despite all the fears they encountered elementary understanding and often even acceptance. Integration and disintegration processes during the one hundred years of the Anabaptist existence in Moravia were impacted by various parties: nobility, the ruler, representatives of the Catholic church, dominion agents and personnel, or other subjects. Yet it was a two-way procedure – while the Moravian society partially integrated the Anabaptists into its structures, the Anabaptists themselves were influenced by the outer world in consequence of intensified interactions and contacts as well.

To be published in summer 2025

Veronika Horáčková

Title in English: 75 years of Felix Timmermans in Czech

The publication “75 jaar Felix Timmermans in het Tsjechisch” (75 years of Felix Timmermans in Czech) focuses on how the writer’s work was received in the Czech context. Felix Timmermans (1886–1947) is one of the most important Flemish writers of the first half of the 20th century. He is mainly known for his rural novels and religiously themed works. A relatively large number of his works have been translated into Czech and several have been adapted into radio plays and musical pieces. Based on polysystem theory and other theoretical approaches, the author explains the circumstances of the emergence of Czech translations of Timmermans’ books. In addition, she examines the image of the writer and his books in the press of the time and how the reception of his works can be explained in a political-historical context.

To be published in summer 2025

Siddhartha Mukherjee

“In an account that’s both lyrical and capacious, Mukherjee takes us through an evolution of human understanding: from the seventeenth-century Discovery that humans are made up of cells to our cutting-edge technologies for manipulating and deploying cells for therapeutic purposes.” – The New Yorker

“Tying together what might otherwise be a disjointed narrative, Mukherjee frequently invokes the patient’s journey. We hear their voices throughout, reminding the reader that however great our knowledge, there is still much to learn… A great read with which it is hard not to hum along.” – Marie Vodicka, Science

Named a New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of the Year by The Economist, Oprah Daily, BookPage, Book Riot, the New York Public Library, and more!

A gripping new story from the American oncologist, scientist and writer, well known to Czech readers thanks to translations of his earlier important works The Emperor of All Maladies. A Biography of Cancer (2015) and The Gene. An Intimate History (2019), published by Munipress.

Mukherjee begins this magnificent story in the late 1600s, when a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked down their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences, and altering both forever. It was the fact that complex living organisms are assemblages of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Our organs, our physiology, our selves – hearts, blood, brains – are built from these compartments. Hooke christened them “cells.”

The discovery of cells – and the reframing of the human body as a cellular ekosystém – announced the birth of a new kind of medicine based on the therapeutic manipulations of cells. A hip fracture, a cardiac arrest, Alzheimer’s dementia, AIDS, pneumonia, lung cancer, kidney failure, arthritis, COVID pneumonia – all could be reconceived as the results of cells, or systems of cells, functioning abnormally. And all could be perceived as loci of cellular therapies.

Filled with writing so vivid, lucid, and suspenseful that complex science becomes thrilling, The Song of the Cell tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. Told in six parts, and laced with Mukherjee’s own experience as a researcher, a doctor, and a prolific reader, The Song of the Cell is both panoramic and intimate – a masterpiece on what it means to be human.

“In an account both lyrical and capacious, Mukherjee takes us through an evolution of human from the seventeenth-century discovery that humans are made up of cells to our cutting-edge technologies for manipulating and deploying cells for therapeutic purposes” (The New Yorker).

To be published in autumn 2025.