The author Jozef Banáš brought home the bacon again. His successful novel Code 1, which was published by Ikar in mid-September previous year, has already collected the third book prize this year. The Golden Book awarded by the publishing house Ikar was the first prize followed by the prestigious Panta Rhei Award and finally the novel gained the Book of the Year 2013 Award in the readers´ poll carried out by the biweekly periodical about new books Knižná revue published by the Centre for Information on Literature. Jozef Banáš is the first Slovak author in the twenty-three-year-long history of the poll to receive the Book of the Year Award twice. The laureates of the 23rd series of this popular readers´ poll were introduced in Bratislava´s theatre Malá scéna STU. The second place went to Marián Hatala and his collection of intimate lyrics ĽúbOstnato published by Trio Publishing, the third place belongs to Ladislav Druga and his Introduction to the History of Astronomy (publishing house of the Slovak Central Observatorium), the fourth place was taken by Leopold Moravčík and his book Bastards in Politics (published by Perfect), and Pavol Rankov gained the fifth place with his book On the Other Side (published by Artforum).

The prize-winning novelist Jozef Banáš could not hide his emotion during an interview for the press agency TASR. After all, he has won the poll of the prestigious magazine Knižná revue for the second time. “They say that I have received the most votes ever since the existence of the poll. I consider readers, who voted for me, as one big jury. I am very happy, because this is not just a simple formal demonstration, but a certain true relationship. I rejoice at it”, the author explained. The victory in the poll probably was facilitated also by the overwhelming number of writer-reader meetings which the author attended. Banáš met his readers 65 times from the day of the the novel had been published (September 12th) until the end of the previous year. “This is more or less surely the main reason for the many votes I received. People appreciate when the author comes to see them and I love communicating with them. I enjoy listening to their opinions, no matter if positive or critical”, he said.

The Book of the Year Award is a competition carried out by the magazine Knižná revue in co-operation with Slovakia´s Union of publishers and booksellers and protected by a trade mark. Every year, the award ceremony takes place on the occasion of the World Book and Copyright Day (April 23rd). In the oldest book poll in Slovakia, the readers send their votes on paper ballots published in every issue of the magazine Knižná revue. The poll comprises three categories – book of the year, debut of the year and publisher of the year. In the past, the Book of the Year Awards went to the following authors: Marián Gavenda and his book Infinite Horizons (Nekonečné horizonty) published by Perfekt, Jozef Haľka and Štefan Komorný for their publication The Dome (Dóm) in 2010, Boris Filan and his novel Klimt´s Kiss (Klimtov bozk) in 2009. In 2008, this award was presented to Jozef Banáš and his novel Jubilation Zone (Zóna nadšenia) for the first time.

Resource: TASR