By Patrik Banga
About the book
The dramatic experience of a Roma community in the Prague quarter of Žižkov in the 1990s, and difficulties in leaving stereotypes and prejudice behind.
The Real Way Out tells the true story of journalist Patrik Banga, who describes his rise from a life of deprivation in a Roma community to his leading status in the Czech media. The narrative begins in the 1990s in Žižkov, Prague (far from the ambitious quarter of today), showing a place riddled with despondency, drugs, alcohol, prostitution and street-fighting, where growing up within the local Roma community is a guarantee of one thing only – a life of more of the same.
In raw, remorseless fashion, Banga describes the teenage years of a Roma boy who from an early age knows only rejection, criminalization, racism and police brutality. His search for a real way out is strewn with obstacles and losses, but his belief that everyone is an individual remains unshakeable. This autobiographical work describes successes and failures, clashes with Roma culture, and a persistent refusal to be pigeonholed.
“Banga is unsparing in his highly convincing presentation of both the majority society and the Roma community. Of no less importance is this work’s status as a unique chronicle of the life of the Roma community in 1990s Žižkov.”
About the author
Patrik Banga (1982) is a Czech writer, journalist, and musician. His memoir Skutečná cesta ven (The Real Way Out), about growing up as a Rom in 1990s Prague, has been nominated for the 2023 Magnesia Litera Award, in the Discovery of the Year category. “Žižkovite” originally appeared in Všude samá krása (Beauty Everywhere), an anthology of short prose by Romani authors, published by the Czech press Kher in 2021.