Today, the cult and world-renowned novel by Josef Škvorecký, one of the most prominent authors of modern Czech literature, depicts the eight last days of the Second World War in a small town, seen through the eyes of teenage "bands", who mock false phrases and seemingly noble gestures, whether they already sound heartily patriotic, or pathetically revolutionary. The boys cannot resist their father's theatrical revolutionary stand against the capitulating Germans, and Danny and a friend even - rather by accident - destroy a German tank and welcome the Red Army. The general surge of patriotic enthusiasm and the scenes of torture of German soldiers who were not able to escape, however, repel him, and the fear of Soviet soldiers, whose arrival has already mobilized the local communists, creeps into his mind.

In its time, Škvorecký's novel brought not only a revolutionary generational, ruthlessly realistic and non-moralizing view of historical events, but also a suggestively presented psychological probe into the soul of a young man, whose only life was friends, jazz and the desire for Irena, an unattainable love. The language of the novel is lively and authentic, unbound by conventions. The regime condemned and condemned the author indignantly for all this, while the readers, on the contrary, welcomed the work with enthusiasm.