Balla is often described as "the Slovak Kafka" for his depictions of the absurd and the mundane. In the Name of the Father features a nameless narrator reflecting on his life, looking for someone else to blame for his failed relationship with his parents and two sons, his serial adultery, the breakup of his marriage and his wife's descent into madness.
Dead is Balla's most recent book and marks a glorious return to the short story form. The stories are very topical dealing with the theme of masculinity, how that is expressed in different forms of aggressive nationalism, Slovak 'nativism' and delusional male interior monologues.
Written and published in 1856, before Jules Verne published any of his novels. A young explorer sets off to map the stars in a balloon. The first ever SF novel written in Slovak.
