Baradla Cave - English version

The novel Baradla Cave was not officially published until 1995 by Edice Analogon. However, it originally appeared in samizdat (homemade book editions during totalitarism) in the 1980s and has lost none of its power as a work of social criticism or its biting humor since then.

Baradla is a living organism, a place (Prague) and a person (a woman), an exploration of motherhood and womanhood, as well as a satirical view of the overbearing welfare state and consumer society.

A linguistic collage composed of pseudoscientific jargon. The diction of interwar magazines for women and girls. Demotivation and a stream of metaphors complemented by Jan Švankmajer’s erotic collages. Scenes of episodic and violent sexuality alternate with humorous reflections on deeply rooted customs and traditions.

With her seemingly boundless sense of the absurd, Eva Švankmajerová provokes readers with virtually everything related to modern life: substance abuse, violent sexual crimes, rampant consumerism, pervasive corruption, and dysfunctional family relationships.

The book is in English.