Petra Hůlová at the Toronto International Festival of Authors

Acclaimed Czech author Petra Hůlová and Korean novelist Lee Heejoo bring two unsettling perspectives to desire, devotion and power. In Hůlová’s The Long Version, a feminist writer in her fifties revisits a complicated relationship from her youth as her daughter challenges her understanding of consent, feminism and the shifting meanings of the past. In Lee’s Holy Boy, translated by Joheun Lee, four devoted K-pop fans take their obsession to a terrifying extreme, kidnapping their idol and watching their fantasy of perfect love unravel into paranoia and violence. Across radically different worlds, Hůlová and Lee examine how desire can distort perception, how devotion can become possession, and how the pursuit of agency can produce unexpected, troubling consequences.