Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
had been shot on a forced march to a labour camp, translated by György Gömöri and Clive
Wilmer, is an excellent place to start.
Zsuzsa Rakovszky
New Life.
Well-received volume translated by the Hungarian-born Eng-
lish poet George Szirtes.
FICTION
GézaCsáth
TheMagician'sGardenandOtherStories
;
OpiumandOtherStories.
Disturbing
short stories written in the magic realist genre. The author was tormented by insanity and opi-
um addiction, killing his wife and then himself in 1918.
Tibor Déry
The Portuguese Princess
. Wry short stories by a once-committed Communist,
who was jailed for three years after the Uprising and died in 1977.
Péter Esterházy
Celestial Harmonies.
Written by a descendant of the famous aristocratic
family, this is a dense and demanding book, chronicling the rise of the Esterházys during the
Austro-Hungarian empire and their downfall under Communism. His latest novel (yet to be
translated), was born of his shock at discovering that his father had been an informer for the
Communist secret police.
Tibor Fischer
Under the Frog, A Black Comedy.
“Under a frog down a coalmine” is a
Hungarian expression meaning “Things can't get worse”, but this fictional account of the
1956 Uprising will have you in stitches. Fischer's parents fled to Britain in 1956.
Jenő Rejtő
The Blonde Hurricane.
Like Antal Szerb and Miklós Radnoti, Rejtő was a great
Hungarian writer who was killed in the Holocaust for his Jewish descent: all three could have
escaped, but they thought it would never happen in Budapest. He wrote a series of excellent
romps - this translation succeeds better than Rejtő's
Quarantine in the Grand Hotel
.
ImreKertész
Fateless.
Drawing from the author's own experiences as an Auschwitz sur-
vivor, this Nobel prize-winning book tells the tale of a young boy's deportation to, and sur-
vival in, a concentration camp. A brilliant translation by Tim Wilkinson.
DezsőKosztolányi
Skylark.
A short and tragic story of an old couple and their beloved child
by one of Hungary's top writers of the twentieth century, in a masterly translation by Richard
Aczél. Kosztolányi's
Esti Kornél
is a Hungarian classic, a series of whimsical short tales that
offers a wonderful portrait of prewar Budapest.
Gyula Krúdy
Adventures of Sinbad.
Stories about a gourmand and womanizer by a popular
Hungarian author with similar interests to his hero.
SándorMárai
Embers.
An atmospheric and moving tale about friendship, love and betrayal
by one of Hungary's most respected pre-World War II writers; a beautiful read, as is his early
novel
The Rebels
, translated by George Szirtes.
