24 May 2013 Jaroslav Rudiš’ new novel
The End of Punk in Helsinki – the latest novel by Jaroslav Rudiš, one of the guests of last year’s edition of the Conrad Festival – is already available! In the novel, Rudiš talks about growing up in the shadow of a radioactive absurdity, in the blind alleys of loneliness, and the vacuum in which rebellion melts. The publisher – Czeskie Klimaty – encourages: “set out on a journey to Helsinki and find out whether punk did indeed end there...”
The blurb of the book featured at www.czeskieklimaty.pl reads: ‘Ole is forty and is the owner of one of the last bars where guests can smoke and mothers with strollers are not allowed inside. The menu includes only solyanka and rollmops. As the eternal child of the East German punk era, Ole is unable to find himself in the new wonderful times. Fighting the demons of the past, he tries to convince himself that all he wants is some peace and quiet. However, this is the last thing that fate has in store for Ole. His story is interwoven with a journal of a rebellious Czech teenager written in the late 1980s. Nancy lives in Jesenik near the Polish border, where listening to decent music is only possible thanks to Radio Three. It is bands such as: the Sex Pistols, Die Toten Hosen, Dezerter, Moskwa, and Siekiera that make her life more bearable and keep her sane.’
