Zuzana Brabcova (1959-2015) was born in Prague. After graduating high school she was denied by the communist regime the opportunity to study at university, so she worked as a librarian, hospital attendant, and as a cleaning lady for six years. After the regime fell in 1989, her first book, Far from the Tree, which had come out in samizdat abroad was officially published and received the very first Jiří Orten Prize. Her novel Ceilings won a Magnesia Litera Award for Prose Book of the Year in 2013, and she followed this with Aviaries in 2016, completed just before her sudden death.