Odd, original, and hugely readable. Not necessarily my cup of tea, but enjoyable nonetheless. Fascinating mix of situations - and a promising debut

Holy male gaze man. Some men really shouldn't write women and this is one. I'm writing more here to hit the character limit, but I cannot read more of this book if this is how the women will be conveyed.

When Adela is informed about her terminal illness, she leaves her son and her Czech village to travel to the United States and reconnect with her daughter Tereza. Soon, she passes away, but her spirit remains, telling the story of her past and her children’s struggle to reclaim her body and learn to understand each other...

This novel offers a unique experience. It presents captivating stories of Adela, from rebellion against the Czech regime in the late 70s, through her years as an illegal immigrant in the United States to a quiet life in her home village, and Tereza, a scientist ready to sign a contract with a highly unethical company to continue her advanced research on prolonging human life and curing cancer. Those stories are blended with Kalfar’s thought-provoking exploration of family, modern medicine, ethics, scientific research and different paths leading to prolonging our existence. Told mainly from the point of view of a spirit, it is an original science fiction novel.

This book was so depressing. I didn't dislike it, I actually really liked some parts of it. But man, it was a grim look at what our future can be.

I really liked Adela a lot. She had an interesting perspective on things and she was honestly a really lovable character to get to know. It was really interesting seeing her narrative considering the things that happen in the book. I also really liked parts of her back story. The bits where they were filming the newt movie were really entertaining to read, not least of all because it was a really bizarre concept for a film.

The ending was just really really grim and quite frankly terrifying. It really made me think about where the world is going right now and I really really do not want it to end up like this book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book somewhat, but it really depressed me.

There were elements of this book that I really enjoyed, the premise of the dystopian future, some of the characters and themes. However the further I got into the book the more I disconnected with it- some of the language was strange to me, descriptions that didn’t fit well with my thinking, so for me it was a struggle to complete

"A Brief History of Living Forever" by Jaroslav Kalfař is a poignant and imaginative novel set in a near-future America closed-off to foreigners. The story follows a mother who contracts a terminal illness and seeks out her daughter, a star researcher for a biotech company obsessed with eternal life. When the mother dies, her children risk everything to reclaim her remains from a mass grave in Florida and return it to her homeland.
Kalfař's writing is off-beat and original, with a veriety of unique characters. The novel explores important themes of immigration, identity, and the pursuit of immortality, while shedding light on the complicated history of Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic. A captivating and original novel that combines elements of science fiction, mystery, and family drama to create a compelling and insightful story.
Highly recommended for fans of dystopian fiction and thought-provoking literature.

Set in a dystopian future, where ultra-nationalism has captured the world, we meet Adela, a woman who has just being told that she is going to die and has never met her daughter. The story documents her first meeting with her daughter and what happens in the aftermath of her death.

When I first read the premise of the book I had thought it would be 100% for me. Indeed, elements of it were done very well, the authors take on the dystopian future is very believable.

However, the story fell down for me in a number of ways. I struggled with how the author wrote both Adela and Tereza, women don't scoop sweat from their armpits, and elements of the eroticism were very much written through a male gaze. While I appreciate the link between telomerases and salamanders etc, as someone who is actually a scientist it felt like buzzwords were been thrown in for the sake of it, such as references to microscopic nanobots. I had expected this to perhaps be a book that spoke back to power but it never reached that point. I also found the pendulum swinging between past and present jarring, and at times quite forced. (Adela literally decides to float off into the past whenever she wishes and we are told as much).

Overall for me it was a very mixed read, parts were done very well but large swathes of it irritated me and as I said I felt that a lot of the time the portrayal of the characters was very stereo-typical and written for the male gaze.

A dystopian fiction about immortality and what it means to be human!

It truly makes you rethink your life and truly living it, and what may come afterwards and accepting what could come afterlife. I loved how it was a near-future fiction but with throw backs to the past to really well-round the story and give a backstory on the main characters life. The near future reality is such a crazy submersion into the future, but not so far fetched it's not believable. Made me rethink alot of things and to start enjoying the life I have right now while I can. This made me feel good for a moment, then truly broke my heart. I enjoyed it thoroughly in a sad eye opening way.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-arc!

I described the author’s first novel, Spaceman of Bohemia, as part space adventure, part chronicle of recent Czech history. It also featured an encounter with a strange companion prompting the protagonist to revisit the events of his early life. Apart from the space adventure bit, you can tick off all the rest with this latest book – a magical talking carp anyone? – but add a large helping of dystopia.

In the author’s frighteningly plausible scenario, America in 2030 is a country where surveillence of citizens is omnipresent and the boundary between the human brain and AI technology is increasingly thin. Many have adopted an implant that connects the Internet directly into their brain. Commerce is dominated by biotech giants such as the VITA corporation, an entity run by two individuals called Steve and Mark. (Random choice of first names? I don’t think so… ) They are investing billions into research on increasing human longevity. Adela’s daughter, Tereza, is one of their employees although her research has a much more altruistic motivation. And America is now governed by the Reclamation Party, a far right, ultra-nationalistic government whose first piece of legislation closed the country’s borders to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and requires those few visitors who do make it to their shores to be electronically tagged and tracked. Unlikely, surely? Climate change has also caused rising sea levels, rendering parts of America uninhabitable.


After only one day with her long-lost daughter, who was adopted by a Danish family as a newborn, Adela dies but lives on in a virtual state able to witness the attempts of her daughter to retrieve her body which has mysteriously disappeared, possibly for ominous reasons. Travelling back to Czechia, Tereza meets her 109-year-old grandmother, the wonderful Babi, and her brother, Roman. He has become infected with the same nationalistic attitudes as those in America.

Between observing their efforts and browsing through the entries in Tereza’s online journal via her implanted device, Adela makes virtual trips back in time to ‘the adventures of her youth’. These include her experiences as a dissident in 1980s Czechoslovakia, as an undocumented immigrant to America and as the wife of a budding filmmaker. We witness their ill-fated attempt to make a film based on the science fiction novel, War of the Newts by Czech author, Karel Čapek, which features an interspecies relationship. (If Wikipedia is to be believed, the author and his novel actually exist.) The latter section felt overlong to me although it did prompt me to search for information about salamanders.


I admired Adela’s resilience. As she herself reflects, ‘I had lived well, loved well, betrayed well, failed well. In all my triumphs and in all my faults, no one – not a cosmic force, not a god, not my children saving my remnants – could ever accuse me of letting life pass me by, of capitulating, of giving in once I’d been broken’. However I did find her willingness to jettison relationships questionably selfish. ‘In each person’s life, there came a time to cut losses and run’.

A wry humour runs throughout the book that often satirises potential technological developments. I chuckled (and so, I suspect, did the author) at the idea of a publishing house promising ‘to revolutionise the field of literature’ by creating custom books for each reader based on a detailed questionnaire which would enable them to identify a reader’s preferences, such as favourite genres, views about politics and identity, their capacity for empathy, favourite foods and music, etc.

A Brief History of Living Forever is endlessly inventive, occasionally bizarre but never less than entertaining. The author’s vision of a dystopian world dominated by extreme nationalism is scary not least because it seems like it could be a possibility.

Think the concept of this sounded really good but there was something about the writing style that I couldn't quite engage with and I found it a real struggle to will myself to pick up the book.

Some of the dystopian elements in this book sound very, very real, with the main element being the US closing its borders for all people except a few tourists. And of course, throwing out many people who thought to find safety from hunger and war. Just follow the news… It’s frightening.
The search for ‘eternal’ life is not new, and this subject can be found in many Science Fiction novels but here it is part of the story of Adéle, Tereza and Roman. The history of the Czech Republic is complicated but the author uses this as a solid background for Adéle, so we get to know where she came from and how growing up in her country shaped her life and her thoughts.
So, all these elements, getting together in this wonderful, insightful and beautifully written book. It’s impossible (well, it is to me) to write a review that conveys exactly what I felt while reading this. I just loved it!
Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for this review copy.

Having chosen to give up her first born child, the news that her life is coming to an end causes Adela to embark on a journey across the Atlantic, to finally connect with the daughter she's watched previously only from the shadows.

Set in the future, though not as far away as you may think, A Brief History of Living Forever looks at how the human desire to live forever could look as well as highlighting that not everyone shares the same thoughts and hopes regarding their eternal life.

Containing moments of humour and sadness, Kalfar weaves current (and recent) real world events into this moving story or a mother and daughter's quest to find and better understand each other. Supported by a number of well-written sub-characters including the 109 year old Babi. This is a great book.

I don't think this story is bad, it just wasn't for me. I didn't connect with Adéla at all, and while I had some interest in the near future dystopia it didn't grip me either. Because I wasn't invested in Adéla I really didn't love the chapters set in the past about her life.

The writing was good, this just isn't the sort of story I usually read and enjoy. I thought maybe the slight sci-fi/dystopia elements might hook me, but it just wasn't enough.

I DNF'd this book at 25%. I love the idea behind this book, and I was so drawn in by Adéla's present story of her terminal illness and travelling to find her daughter. The reunion was emotional and the events immediately after hurt to read, but the flashback scenes started from there, and I struggled to remain drawn in. As well-written as the scenes were, I was so involved in the present, and I just kept wanting to skip back to that part of the story. This book is definitely well-researched though, and I can definitely see the appeal of it.

I was desperate to get my hands on this book because I so, so loved Kalfar's debut novel, Spaceman of Bohemia. This second novel was just as audacious, acerbic and stirring as his debut, while attempting to capture a broader span of dystopian themes. Kalfar casts a critical eye on everything from technological progress to the rise of western nationalism and the refugee and climate crises. And - without giving anything away - its narrator was one of the most inventive and intriguing I have encountered in a long while. While it did miss a little of the absurd charm of Spaceman of Bohemia, A Brief History of Living Forever is striking in its social commentary and incredible (female-led) pack of complex characters. And oh my god - that ending! A total gut-punch.

With an entire description based around death, immortality, and inter-generational heartbreak, I didn’t for one moment assume this was going to be an easy read and went into it expecting that I would find portions difficult to process.

What I actually found was a thoughtful, occasionally funny, original plot, with some chilling reminders that the foundations for this near-future dystopia are already being laid. With ultranationalist factions growing larger in many countries around the world, Kalfar’s writing played on my anxieties of the future – this book felt both very current, and very far away at the same time.

For the most part, this was an incredibly thought provoking, sorrowful storyline. We follow two timelines, both navigating their own struggles and their own emotional hardship – we see both an immigrant couple determined to live the American dream in the past, and a modern women determined to see her mother live on. I really enjoyed the different characters stories – though I definitely felt the past was a little fuller in description.

I’ll be honest – there were elements that made this difficult to follow. The combination of shifting timelines and the sci-fi element of the search for immortality meant sometimes I felt lost. I do however anticipate that when I read this again – and I will be doing that – that I’ll enjoy this a lot more. It’s the confidence I have in this book being a future re-read and well loved addition to my shelf that has me rounding up the 3.5 star to 4.

An audacious novel set in near-future America, from the critically acclaimed author of SPACEMAN OF BOHEMIA.

When Adéla discovers she has a terminal illness, her thoughts turn to Tereza, the child she gave up at birth. Leaving behind her family in their native Czech village, Adéla flies to the United States to find her long-lost daughter before it is too late.

Raised in America and living in a fractured New York City, Tereza is working for two suspicious biotech moguls hellbent on immortality. But before Tereza can imagine a cure for Adéla, her mother dies and her body disappears.

Parts of this book were 2 stars, parts 4 stars.
I was drawn to the dystopian elements in this book on how they would reach immortality.
The book's narrator Adéla jumps from her teen years to the early years of becoming a mother, to the "now" in the near future. She has died, but her consciousness is still there and follows her daughter and her family.
Within the flashbacks, there is a whole other story which she and her partner turn into a film, they hope will become a cult classic. The flashbacks were too drawn out for me.
The "now" parts were way more interesting to me, and lacked the depth the flashback scenes had.
Overall the vibe I got from this book was very melancholy, so if you are in the mood for that this book is for you.
There were very interesting political observations in this book.
Overall it was a bit of a confusing read.

This book looks at the perils of ultranationalist movements in a dystopian future when America is divided and has developed increasingly strict rules to prevent refugees and economic migrants from entering the country .portions of the story are set in Czechoslovakia where similar far right factions are developing
There are sci fi elements with one of the lead characters working for a company that are looking to prolong life either by extending natural life or by uploading brain activities to computers to ensure immortality .
When her estranged mother travels to find her and dies suddenly her body is kidnapped and her brain uploaded to the Internet .
I found the elements of the story that dealt with the ultra right nationalism more satisfactory and believable than the sci fi elements which I felt were stretched rather more thinly and were not as believable.The story struggled to hold my attention towards the end of the book when it became rather complicated.l
The topicality of the story was very immediate with discussion of the Russian war in Ukraine .It’s one of the joys of reading new novels when they represent egg by the actual world you live on
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published in the Uk 28th March 2023 by Hodder and Stoughton