Pišťanek´s reputation is assured by the originality, craftsmanship and inventiveness of Rivers of Babylon and by its hero, the most mesmerizing character of Slovak literature, Rácz, an idiot of genius, a psychopathic gangster. Rácz appears in autumn 1989, when "Socialism" crumbles and "robber baron" capitalism is born. Better than any historian, Rácz and Rivers of Babylon tell the story of a Central Europe, where criminals, intellectuals and exsecret policemen have infiltrated a new ´democracy´.

Preklad: Peter Petro