“The whole kingdom lived off Worms’ drops, the drops flowed through the veins and capillaries of the animals, plants and stones of Worms’ world, and if the cycle ran dry then this so-called nature would begin to fall apart piece by piece, just as the wings and props disappear from the stage once the performance has finished. Without the drops the “new” nature would collapse into the old nature, as if a great tower crumbled, and instead of looming at the top of a cliff returned to the ground all the stone it had borrowed. “That’s why not one drop must remain,” said Jakub, adding that the garden was the heart of Worms’ kingdom, or something in that spirit. It truly seemed that a happy accident had brought our friends to the only right place.”

Published by Druhé město press, 2009.
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Narrated by: Hynek Chmelař
Recorded by: Vojtěch Zavadil, Mr Wombat
Audio post-production: Jonáš Richter
Musical accompaniment: Markéta Lisá
Illustrations: David Böhm

Petr Koťátko (born 1955)
Petr Koťátko studied at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno, and subsequently taught at the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education and Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague and the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Fribourg, and since 1990 he has been an academic researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences. His main subject of interest is the philosophy of language, the theory of fiction, history of philosophy and literary interpretation (in particular Beckett, Borges and Kafka). He has published the collection of short stories and poems Úvod do zoologie (Petrov), the novella Casanova (Druhé město), the children’s books Wormsův svět (Druhé město) and Anička, mluvící potok a další chovanci ústavu paní Majerové (Meander), and the play Skalka (Větrné mlýny). His literary books are created as a joint work together with his daughter, the artist Eva Koťátková.

Supported by the Prague City Council and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.