Book Launch | Life Could Be So Beautiful

Ruth Maier, a young girl with an extraordinary sensitivity to language and the world around her, our fellow human being. Sometimes dubbed the Austrian Anne Frank, she also had Moravian roots. The diaries she kept for ten years until her tragic deportation from Oslo to Auschwitz represent one of the most profound personal testimonies of the Holocaust, the search for refuge, and finding one’s place in the world. In early November, a graphic novel adaptation titled Life Could Be So Beautiful will be published by Paseka in cooperation with the Ruth Maier Foundation.

How do you translate intimate diary entries, poems, drawings, and the existential reflections of a teenage girl into the visual language of a graphic novel? How do you avoid oversimplification and make her fragile yet exceptionally powerful story accessible to a new generation of readers? At book launch events in Prague and Brno, adaptation authors Štěpánka Jislová and Kristýna Plíhalová, historian Táňa Klementová, and Paseka editor-in-chief Jakub Sedláček will discuss the creation of the graphic novel, working with historical sources, and the personality of Ruth Maier. Join us for a look behind the scenes of the book’s creation and listen to Ruth Maier’s unmistakable voice in a new visual dialogue.

Dates and Venues:

• Friday, 13 November 2026 at 6:00 PM – Brno, Villa Löw-Beer (Drobného 22/297)
  Presentation by authors Štěpánka Jislová and Kristýna Plíhalová, historian Táňa Klementová, and editor-in-chief Jakub Sedláček. Moderated by Kateřina Kadlecová. Organised by Paseka, the Ruth Maier Foundation, MEHRIN, and the Brno Region Museum – Villa Löw-Beer.
• Tuesday, 1 December 2026 at 6:00 PM – Prague, Božská lahvice bookstore (Bílkova 122/6, Prague 1)
  Presentation by authors Štěpánka Jislová and Kristýna Plíhalová. Moderated by Barbora Voříšková. Organised by Paseka and the Ruth Maier Foundation.