Key points
- The audiobook “Hovory”, based on telephone conversations between Ukrainians during the full-scale war, has been named the best audiobook of 2025 in the Czech Republic.
- The project’s author is Viktoriia Kralko, a student at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
- The impetus for creating the book was Viktoriia’s encounter with the wife of a captured Azovstal defender at a rally in support of prisoners of war in Prague.
- The release comprises five audio stories – conversations between Ukrainians who are unable to see one another because of the war.
- The Czech translation of “Hovory” was narrated by well-known Czech actors.
The audiobook “Hovory” (“Telephone Calls”), based on telephone conversations between Ukrainians during the full-scale war, has been named the best audiobook of 2025 in the Czech Republic.
The release received two awards at once – best audiobook of the year and best audiobook outside the main categories.
The project’s author is Viktoriia Kralko, a student at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She is studying sound design.
Kralko was born in the Czech Republic to a Ukrainian family. Her relatives on her father’s side live in Ukraine, her cousins serve in the military, and one of the heroines of the book is her godmother’s daughter.
The impetus for creating the book was Viktoriia’s encounter with the wife of a captured Azovstal defender at a rally in support of prisoners of war in Prague.
Telephone calls, silences and long pauses all have their meaning here. The narrator’s voice ties the individual stories together, places them in context and expands the framework of meaning of the messages and conversations. This is a document with profound testimonial power.
– The jury.
The release comprises five audio stories – conversations between Ukrainians who are unable to see one another because of the war. Among them are dialogues between an Azovstal defender, who remains in Russian captivity, and his wife, as well as conversations between a grandmother who stayed in Prague with her grandson and her daughter, who returned to Ukraine and joined the armed forces.
The Czech translation of “Hovory” was narrated by well-known Czech actors, including Anna Fialová, Daniel Krejčík, Jan Hájek and Jitka Sedláčková.
In total, 124 audiobooks were entered in the 2025 competition.
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