My Brother The Messiah

If in the near future a new Messiah were to appear in the middle of Europe, would people accept him? And would it prove possible to establish a new religion?

The year is 2096 and the drought has been going on for many years. The riverbed of the Vltava is dry. However, a scientific project to divert part of the sun’s rays in the stratosphere raises hope. At that time, during the first rain, Eli was born in Prague’s Holešovice.

In 2168, in a Greek settlement near Mount Olympus, Eli’s older brother Mark preaches to the survivors of the worst exodus in human history. (The experiment got out of control and a new ice age started spreading from the north.) So far, only a handful of the most faithful have believed in the messianism of the martyred Eli.

The novel is geopolitically set in Central Europe and the Balkans over 80 to 150 years. It shows possible future scenarios of both political and environmental development. Believably and with a sense of character psychology, the author describes how much pain, love, hatred, doubts and hope could be brought about by the birth of someone who could play the same role in human history as Jesus once did. At the same time, Jesus’ teachings and death were also associated with misunderstanding, and the probability that his story would give rise to a global religion was almost zero. The same is true of Eli, which underlines the thoughtfulness of the author’s concept.

Reviews

“The best science fiction for February 2021 – miracles and messiahs in a frozen future. Politics and spirituality collide in Simon Ings’s top sci-fi choice.“

Simon Ing, The Times

“Well worth your time. Vopenka tells a dystopian tale about hope amid chaos, and about the drawbacks, and the consolations, of faith.”

Financial Times

“Vopenka’s prose is bone dry, his thinking original, provocative and engaging. My Brother the Messiah is a challenging read but a rewarding one”.

Paul Burke, European Literature Network

“Vopenka’s voice is Czech yet global and his prose compelling.”

Jewish Renaissance, GB

“Within this bleak and hopeless narrative tide, albeit one that is chillingly beautiful in its descriptive violence, the author does something he singularly ignored in his earlier work: he offers a small but persistent countercurrent of hope”.

Morning Star