Die schnellste Frau der Welt

By Steven Schneider

A novel based on the extraordinary true story of Eliška Junková, one of the most successful female racing drivers of the 1920s — and a woman determined to live life on her own terms.

In 1907, in Olmütz, in what is now the Czech Republic, young Alzbeta Pospisilova dreams of Morocco and a life beyond the world prescribed to her. During the First World War, she falls in love with her superior, Vincent Junek. But when marriage threatens to put an end to her ambitions, she leaves him and sets out on her own.

Years later, Alzbeta returns to Vincent, marries him and becomes Eliška. When her husband takes up motor racing, she discovers in the automobile something she has been searching for all along: freedom.

By 1926, Eliška is beating Vincent on the racetrack. Soon she is competing internationally, taking on some of the best drivers in Europe and making a name for herself in a world almost entirely dominated by men. But success does not bring independence. Financially dependent on her husband and confronted with sabotage, prejudice and a secret from her past, Eliška begins to realise that talent alone may never give her a fair chance.

In the scorching summer of 1928, Eliška and Vincent travel to Germany to compete against the world’s best drivers at the notoriously dangerous Nürburgring — while their marriage and their lives threaten to come apart.

Based closely on real lives and events, Die schnellste Frau der Welt is a novel about speed, freedom and the price of refusing the life that has been chosen for you.

Key Facts:

• Publisher: Rüffer & Rub, Zurich (2025)

• Language: German (materials available in EN/FR)

• Genre: Historical / Literary Fiction

• Themes: female independence, motor racing, marriage and ambition, gender and social expectations, freedom and self-determination

• Rights: Available