Spartakiad Killer

Štefan Horák's novel balances on the edge of fiction and the true crime genre – it focuses on the inner world of a teenage boy who gradually descends into violence. The book is not a reconstruction of the crimes committed by the 'Spartakiad Killer', but a deep dive into his mind: his loneliness, fantasies, suppressed anger, and distorted perception of reality. Set against the backdrop of the 'normalisation' era in Czechoslovakia, it follows the birth of darkness in the mind of a person who remains completely invisible to those around him—until it is too late.