Review
Nobody on the Scaffolding
"In his new poetry volume, Ádám Nádasdy systematically dismantles the massive edifices of a fulfilled adulthood, the tower blocks of a stiffened personality..." – Eve Horváth reviews Ádám Nádasdy's 2024 poetry collection Rocking Boat (Billeg a csónak) for Litera.
A Postmodern (Self)Parody Wrapped in a Bildungsroman
Benedek Ficsor reviews the latest novel by the Hungarian writer Endre Kukorelly: House, War, Death, or The Eyes of the One Led by Hermes Are Not Made to See Strange Lands (Ház, háború, halott, avagy Nem arra való a szeme annak, akit Hermész vezet, hogy fura vidékeket lásson). The article was translated into English by Miriam Grunwald.
Zsófia Bán: Monument – On Teri Szűcs’s Déry Prize
Teri Szűcs’s book is a monument both literally and figuratively; built from a person's memories, a monument which at the same time rewrites not only her life but their shared life too. Teri Szűcs has created something which brings us closer to the eternal question of what makes a human. – Zsófia Bán on Teri Szűcs, a winner of this year’s Déry Prize.
The Untranslatable Longings of Home
Returning home for a high school reunion, an emigré muses on her relationship to her hometown, the unfamiliarity of her mother tongue, and the fate of the family cemetery plot. Hanna Zelma Horányi reviews Home by Andrea Tompa, in Jozefina Komporaly's translation.
Tragicomedy
"Krasznahorkai is a literary artist so great that I do not see anyone in Hungarian literature who compares," – Hungarian writer László's Krasznahorkai's to-be-translated novel Zsömle odavan ("Zsömle Is Gone", 2024) reviewed by Csaba Károlyi.
Mosaic Women's Fates
"Puskás expresses herself cleverly and cuts straight to the bone, but with all the required sensitivity and empathy. Her rawness and boldness are staggering" — Petra Baluja's review of the 2024 EUPL-nominated novel Megmenteni bárkit (That Any Might Be Saved) by Panni Puskás.
Nightmares in Hungarian
"...an unsettling stroll through the nightmares of Hungary." - HLO's Austin Wagner reviews The Black Maybe: Liminal Tales, the debut English collection from Hungary's leading horror writer Attila Veres, in Luca Karafiáth's translation.
White Dog, Red Blood
"Never before had there been a work of domestic contemporary Hungarian literature so free, so fundamentally divorced from the mold of the traditional prose." József Sántha reviews Ottó Tolnai's prose works, The Death of Gogol and 3 Virág Street, for Revizor.
Wanderer, Once Again
"Závada’s linguistic thoroughness weaves lightly rolling sentences, monologues and dialogues together with such ease that is a joy to read," – Ágnes Fodor reviews Hungarian writer Pál Závada's novel Wanderer, first published in 2006, now in its third edition.
The Monumental Mosaic
"Géczi's poems are Géczi poems, just as Ady's are Adys, Juhász Juhászes, Pilinszky Pilinszkys." László Arató reviews Hungarian poet, biologist, and cultural historian János Géczi's 2021 volume A napcsíkós darázshoz (To the Sun-Streaked Wasp).
The Makeup of Fiction
"In this sensitive, fine prose, the voice of self-pity carefully gives account of experiences" – Continuing our queer literature focus, a review of Tibor Noé Kiss' 2010 debut novel, Inkognito, written by József Keresztesi and translated by Ryan Lane.
An Appetizer to the Dystopia of Tibor Bödőcs
Mihály Benedek's review of Hungarian stand-up and author Tibor Bödőcs's latest novel, Luigi the Last (Mulat a manézs, 2021), which is now available in Katalin Rácz's English translation, and depicts a day in the life of an imaginary country: Hetticania.
Horror Romanticism and Realism
A metaphysical horror, the claustrophobia of (literary) life, board game subculture, and autofellatio in Hungarian writer Imre Bartók’s latest novel. Bálint Modor reviews Lovak a folyóban (Horses in the River).
Ungraspable
"The question inevitably crops up as to what the reader “must believe” of the text. If it is truly autobiographical, what is it we can truly discover about this particular life? And whose life is it truly about?" – Hungarian writer Imre Bartók's untranslated dark and radical six-hundred-page experimental memoir, reviewed by Zoltán Szalay.
A Finite God, or Bolyai in Our Time
Zsolt Láng’s novel is not a biographical work, not even a treatment of Bolyai’s legacy, but rather an attempt to evoke a spirit in which the author’s own double features alongside characters both real and fictional. Ágnes Fodor's review of Hungarian author Zsolt Láng's untranslated, award-winning novel Bolyai.
For Readers Only
"This unique point of view is what guides you through the longer and shorter stories in the book. The inability to wonder, which is actually rooted in the limitlessness of fantasy and an openness to the world." Orsolya Kolozsi reviews Hungarian writer Edina Szvoren's 2021 collection Mondatok a csodálkozásról (Phrases about Wonder).
A Sci-fi Built on Linguistics
"...an unorthodox, fast-paced work of sci-fi posing many exciting questions about culture, society, language, and the future of Hungarians and humanity." Writing for Könyves magazin, Annamária Apró reviews Katalin Baráth's 2021 linguistic sci-fi novel, Aphasia.
Radical Transparency
"...the volume’s ruthlessly self-critical nature becomes inseparable from the critical discourse on communities, since the identity of the speaker is formed by the experience of belonging to these communities." Dániel Fenyő reviews Kamilla Vida's 2021 poetry volume, Constructive Vote of No Confidence.
The Girl Who Spoke
Continuing our children's literature focus for WorldKidsLit month, guest editor Anna Bentley brings us József Lapis's review of Hungarian writer Krisztina Tóth's fairytale The Girl Who Didn't Speak.
