What great news and what an amazing success!
Jozef Banáš, called also Slovak Dan Brown, squeezed Dan Brown´s novel Inferno out of the first place. 
The largest bookstore chain in Slovakia - Panta Rhei awarded the most successful authors of 2014 and the TOP title winning the readers´ poll was Kód 1 – Tajomstvo zázraku (Code One – The Secret of the Miracle).

Twenty thousand readers participated in the most prestigious reader´s poll Panta Rhei Awards, referred to as the Slovak Book Oscar, and voted via internet for the best book of the year 2014. The winner was the novel Kód 1 – Tajomstvo zázraku (Code One – The Secret of the Miracle) written by Jozef Banáš, followed by Dan Brown´s Inferno. The third place in this reputable readers´ poll went to Jonas Johansson and his novel The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

The novel Kód 1 prompted vivid discussions especially among representatives of the Slovak Catholic church, because the author deals with the quest for evidence of Jesus Christ and the Jews living in India and Kashmir. Kód 1 was awarded Slovakia´s Best Book of the Year 2013 as well. In November 2013, the book was launched by the famous Czech singer Dan Landa; and by the end of March 2015, a record-breaking number of copies – 33,000 – were sold. Interestingly enough, Banáš talked about the novel with his American colleague Dan Brown and last summer, with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Kashmir.

After having received the award, Jozef Banáš said: “I am really touched. I thank every reader who supported Kód 1. Those thousands of voices are the largest jury that has ever judged my work. And it´s a wonderful coincidence, that the English translation of this novel has been completed just about these days.”

A few days ago, Jozef Banáš´s essay on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was published in the Indian literary magazine Saar sansaar.

Slovak Press Agency, SITA, Publishing house Ikar