Conceived as a mosaic in which different narrators take the floor in turn the story evolves around Jan Antonín Baťa, the ‘shoemaker from Zlín’, who conquered the world. Bata fled from the Nazis to Brazil where he rebuilt his shoe empire. .As a whole it gives a picture of one of the most remarkable and influential Czech families of the 20th century – small, intimate stories against the background of grand events that shook the world, that shook Czechoslovakia, and in itself shook the family Bata.

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“Anyone expecting a novel about shoes will be disappointed, but those who want to experience an extraordinary life story will be in for a treat.”

— ORF Steiermark

“All layers and motives, characters and stories refer to one junction: that of a big city that has spread out over the whole world  and has touched everyone’s life.”

— Lidové noviny

Translations