''The Twelve Little Cakes'' (2004) is a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

author

Dominika Dery Dominika Dery (born 7 March 1975 in Černošice near Prague, Czechoslovakia), also known as Dominika Furmanová, is a Czech journalist and writer, having published works of poetry, drama, and a memoir. '' The Twelve Little Cakes'' (2004), which chr ...

. It tells stories from Dery's life that take place from before her conception up until her late childhood, as well as detailing life in an

Eastern bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

country. The story includes holidays to

Semily Semily (; german: Semil) is a town in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,100 inhabitants. Administrative parts Town parts of Bítouchov and Podmoklice and the village of Spálov are administrative parts of Semily. Geograp ...

in northern Czechoslovakia and to Miedzyzdroje on Poland's

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

coast. Dery was born in 1975 in

Černošice Černošice () is a town in Prague-West District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,400 inhabitants. The town is part of the Prague metropolitan area. It lies southwest of Prague, on the Berounka River. History ...

, a village just outside

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in then-

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. Her mother Jana had decided to conceive another child after dreaming about a little girl. Dery's parents were dissidents who had taken part in the failed

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

of 1968, causing them to live under suspicion: Jana's parents, who were among the Communist elite, disowned her, Jarda had difficulty finding or keeping a job, and the family always had to be wary of informers. However, the couple managed to raise their two daughters in a loving, even adventurous household despite their troubles. Dery's enrollment and progress in

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

school comes to the fore later in the story, culminating in performances at the Smetana and National Theatre in Prague.

External links

Kirkus reviews
Memoirs 2004 non-fiction books Books about Czechoslovakia Books about ballet {{memoir-stub