It was translated into English in 1990 by Paul Wilson, and according to The Times is Skvorecky's masterpiece.
[2] and contains unflattering references to real people, Future Czech President Václav Havel becomes "the world-famous playwright Hejl", the writer Vladimír Páral appears as the "gifted non-party novelist Nabal".
[3] In a Bohemian church in 1948 an apparent miracle is denounced as a hoax by the Communist party.
Danny Smiricky (the hero of Škvorecký's 1977 novel The Engineer of Human Souls who also appeared in the previous novel "The Cowards")[4] was present at the church but slept through the event.
Twenty years later the case is re-examined during the Prague Spring.