It is often called a balad of Smíchov (a famous townpart of Prague) and straight at the beginning of the book, the reader is cast into the city, where streets and shops appear as if they were part of an underground labyrinth. Two worlds are in conflict with each other and the main character Hooks is not feeling at home in either of them. Nevertheless he has to live in them. He leaves one world, but he never fully reaches the other world. In each of them a strong mysterious ingredient awaits him, which turns life into life: love or drugs. In each of them the dark law of death is on the look-out for him, a pit, or the exit from Angel station — the exit or death.
Praise
“Topol’s prose can veer into Jack London territory: Hooks might ‘find a drug for the night, a woman, a gun, or all of it combined’. By presenting Smichov as a microcosm of the tangled-up times at the end of communist rule, Topol offers Angel Station as an intriguing spaced-out supplement to the grander scale and ambition of City Sister Silver.”
—James A. Hopkin, The Times Literary Supplement
“With its harsh colloquial language, colorful descriptions, and heavy focus on drugs, the novel recalls nothing so much as Irvine Welsh’s cult classic, Trainspotting (1996). […] A graphic, grungy tale of addiction and consequences.”
Selected published translations (5)
Der Engel exit German
Ange exit French
Anioł Polish
Anděl: L’incrocio dell’Angelo Italian
Angel Station English