Martin Vopěnka: My Brother the Messiah

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Book of the month: My Brother the Messiah by Martin Vopenka, trans. by Anna Bryson Gustova

Early in the 22nd century a Slav religious community ekes out a living among the frostbitten olive groves of northern Greece. They're better off than most. A botched technological attempt to fix climate change has caused a new ice age. Scandinavia has become a land of perpetual snow; countries turn to dictators to protect them, or to religious leaders to give them hope 

Set in a future where humanity has all but destroyed the world and itself, My Brother the Messiah focuses on seventy-two-year-old Marek who is the brother of the messiah, Eli.

Eli died many years earlier and, during a short life, Marek was his protector. Since Eli's death, Marek is now the guardian of his brother's legacy and his message of peace and hope. Leading of one of the few colonies where children are still being born, he tries to carry on the legacy and find a future for a world that has burnt, then frozen and continues to fall apart.

Then a mysterious young woman called Natalia appears and Marek begins, for the first time since the birth of his brother, to think about living for himself.

The narrative weaves between the present, where Marek faces a crisis of faith and pressure from his community to set a moral example, and the past where he followed Eli with no thought for himself and no doubt that Eli is the messiah.

Marek lives his life in his brother's shadow, convinced this is his role.

My Brother the Messiah presents a nightmarish vision of a future where human selfishness has all but destroyed the Earth, and the only apparent hope is either in religion or science.

Czech author Martin Vopenka tackles complex contemporary issues in his writing. My Brother the Messiah is no exception—a quietly profound story that moves slowly at a deliberate pace and stays compelling. It presents a subtle and provocative meditation on the nature of faith and hope in the face of despair and chaos.