Summary of Rivers of Babylon
“Rivers of Babylon” is a crime novel set against the backdrop of Bratislava’s underworld during the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the transition from Communist rule to democracy in Czechoslovakia. The story follows Rácz, a poor man from the Slovak countryside who becomes a gangster in Bratislava and ends up ruling the city through his control of the heating pipes.
Reasons to read Rivers of Babylon
“Rivers of Babylon” captures the turbulent transition to democracy and a free market economy in Bratislava around 1990. It is a fast-paced and humorous satire of both communism and capitalism, and paints a vivid portrait of a wild and amoral period in recent Slovak history. The novel was turned into a Slovak comedy film of the same name in 1998. Two sequels were released of this novel during the 1990s: “The Wooden Village” and “The End of Freddy”. Peter Pišťanek was a celebrated Slovak author, best known for his short stories and his novel “Rivers of Babylon”.
Setting: Bratislava (Slovakia)
Original title: Rivers of Babylon
Year of publication: 1991
Nr of pages: 259
