Analfabet – Havran Michal (2019)

A novel set in Bratislava in the 1990s, amid sex, drugs and occultism in a capital city of nothingness. This generational novel, with its provocative strain of dark romanticism, also reads as a hateful tribute to a hometown, a city born of error and an ideal place for preparing a suicide. The story unfolds during an era of social transformation, when the fall of the old regime releases enormous energy into society. Instead of using it to restore freedom and spiritual values, people devote it to the furious pursuit of consumerism. Spirituality is drawn into the same process, becoming a subject of commerce and fraud, transformed into a false idol for desperate people seeking meaning in their lives. Successful predators rule society, while “lost souls” unable to adapt to the new conditions struggle sadly to survive. The novel’s protagonists belong to the latter group. They make their way among mafiosi, prostitutes, drug addicts and charlatans, while their fates dangerously converge around a stolen medieval manuscript. A mystical story about a book with indecipherable contents begins, offering an original account of Central Europe, Slovakia and its capital.