Šindelka, Němec: Tenderness in the Age of Algorithms

A conversation about Marek Šindelka's novel "Systémy něhy" (Systems of Tenderness) - exploring the systems we create to make life easier, only to find ourselves constrained by them. Šindelka is interviewed by writer Jan Němec. The programme lasts 60 minutes and is conducted in Czech.

Marek Šindelka is a writer, poet, and screenwriter. He debuted with the poetry collection "Strychnin a jiné básně" (2005), which won the Jiří Orten Prize. His subsequent works include the novel "Chyba" (2008), short story collections "Zůstaňte s námi" (2011) and "Mapa Anny" (2014), and the novella "Únava materiálu" (2016). As a screenwriter, he collaborated with Vojtěch Mašek on the film "Okupace", for which they won a Czech Lion award. In 2026, after ten years, he published his new novel "Systémy něhy", in which he returns to questions of fragility, loneliness, and performance pressure through the story of a pianist.

Jan Němec is a writer, journalist, and publicist. For his novel "Dějiny světla" (2013) about photographer František Drtikol, he received the European Union Prize for Literature; his autofictional prose "Možnosti milostného románu" (2019) was nominated for the Magnesia Litera award. With Petr Vizina, he compiled a book of conversations about spirituality, "Znamení neznámého" (2021); his most recent novel "Byt" (2024) was co-written with Jana Šrámková. His works have been translated into fifteen languages. He has worked as a university lecturer, served as chairman of the Association of Writers, worked for many years as an editor at Host publishing house, and has led the eponymous literary journal since 2022.