Witty conversations in a sauna staking everything on undiluted dialogue.

A group of sixteen friends regularly meet in a sauna for some sweaty guy time filled with chat. But their refuge is about to close for good. This witty novel about men’s woes is based on pure dialogue from speakers who are only referred to by their Indian nicknames. It was staged in Brno by Divadlo Feste as the play Čekání na konec světa (Waiting for the End of the World) before the literary version was created, and in February 2019 it will have its premiere in Germany. This essentially humorous novel doesn’t have a central character or a dominant narrator, and yet it knows all there is to know about men’s expulsion from paradise. The great male we in times when something significant is coming to an end is the unifying element of this prose work.

Praise

“Anyone who has ever been in a sauna knows that conversations under the spruce ceiling in dry 100-degree heat tend to be superficial, topics are endlessly repeated and you cannot convince the convinced. Rudiš has succeeded brilliantly in transferring all this triviality to paper for sauna-lovers.”

—Reflex

“The author took to heart the golden rule of moderation and wrote a book which pays homage to Czechness – effortlessly and with a detached view.”

—MF Dnes

Selected published translations (1)

Czeski Raj Polish