The Twelve Little Cakes

Long before she was born, Dominika first appeared to her mother in a dream, so when she came to be, she was welcomed with eager expectation and much love. Though her arrival was auspicious, as the child of recognized dissidents associated with the failed Prague Spring uprising, Dominika's life would be far from charmed. Her mother was disowned by her parents, who were members of the Party elite. Her father was an inventor whose politics resulted in his working as a taxi driver, but who nevertheless remained an unrepentant optimist. Rounding out the family--colorful, even by local standards--were a beautiful, voluptuous teenage sister with many male admirers and an enormous St. Bernard who was a famous Czech TV star. In a village on the outskirts of Prague, full of gossipy neighbors, state informants, friendly old grandmothers, and small-town prejudices, Dominika grows up a self-possessed child, whose openness and curiosity often lead her, and her family, into trouble. Yet the love, pride, and quirky ingenuity that bind them together will guarantee their survival--and ultimately their happiness--through the best and worst of times. The Twelve Little Cakes is equal parts testimony to the struggle of a bygone era and a love letter to a joy-filled childhood that no external forces could dim.

Equal parts testimony to the struggles of a bygone era and a love letter to a bright-eyed childhood that no outside force could dim, this is Dominika Dery's acclaimed memoir of Communist-era Czechoslovakia.

Equal parts testimony to the struggle of a bygone era and a love letter to a joy-filled childhood that no external forces could dim, "The Twelve Little Cakes" is the colorful story of a precocious child born to recognized dissidents associated with the failed Prague Spring uprising.

Dominika Dery was born in Prague in 1975. As a girl, she danced and performed in the national ballet and national theater companies of Czechoslovakia. She is the author of four collections of Czech poetry and a play. The Twelve Little Cakes is her first book in English.