Where The Birds Stopped Singing is about the search for the life of my Czech grandfather, whom I never knew, inspired by an old Polaroid photo of my mother.
 

When my grandfather was seventeen years old, he fled to the Netherlands with the help of the Red Cross. After a short stay in Groningen, where he never felt at home, he ended up on the Holterberg in Holten. There, he came into contact with Piet Bos, the former founder of the Holterberg Nature Museum. With him, his passion for hunting—passed down from his father—was not only reignited but further developed, as Piet Bos taught him both taxidermy and hunting.
 

My grandfather fell in love with Piet Bos’s daughter, my grandmother. The mountain became his home, though I wonder if he ever truly felt at home there. My grandfather always seemed to be on the move, never truly rooted anywhere. He roamed the world—from Scotland to Alaska, from Africa to Pakistan, through Russia, Poland, Germany, and beyond—always searching for something that perhaps could never be caught.