Authors & Works
Dan Lungu: I am an Old Communist Hag
Translation:
The hero of novel I am an Old Communist Hag is a former locksmith whose nostalgic memories disclose the deceitfulness of Ceausescu’s regime and the infantilism of the cult of his personality. The book I am an Old Communist Hag was published in Hungarian in 2008.
Risto Isomäki: Sands of Sarasvati
Translation:
The eco-thriller Sands of Sarasvati, which was awarded several prizes and which was also published in a comics version in 2008. The story takes place in the near future when archaeologists discover underwater ruins of mysterious cities and reach a conclusion that mankind is in an immediate danger.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: Gepard
Translation:
A Sicilian author (1896-1957) whose most renowned piece of work is also his only fiction. Gepard was later also made into a film by Luchino Visconti. The author served in the army and following the Battle of Caporetto he found himself in a Hungarian prison camp from which he managed to escape. He returned to Sicily after the end of the war, begun to travel with his mother and continued in linguistic studies. It was during that period that the theme of the novel fledged in his head, originally as a story taking place during a single day, as does the Ulysses.
Jean-Michel Guenassia: The Club of Incorrigible Optimists
Translation:
The title links in with a group of refugees from Eastern Europe who, towards the end of the 60s, started to meet in the back room of one of Prague’s bistros in order to play. Among them were also J. P. Sartre and J. Kessel both suffering from incurable optimism that was also so characteristic of the other members of the society.
Khalid Boudou: Pizza mafia
Translation:
Pizza Mafia is author’s third fiction, which was nominated for the best fiction book for young readers. A thrilling story of a sixteen years old boy, about the sense as well as nonsense of daily scuffles, about the relationship between father and son, about honour and about how a man must under any circumstances stay true to himself. The book is of course also about love and delicious pizzas.
Pavol Rankov: It Happened on September the First (or whenever)
Translation:
The story of this book takes place between the years 1938 and 1968 in Czechoslovakia: three friends compete for the favour of one lady while turbulent changes of the 20th century unfold behind their back. Rankov was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature for this book in 2009.
Simon Froehling: Lange Nächte Tag
Translation:
Author who holds a dual citizenship – Australian and Swiss – was born in 1978 in the town of Brugg in the Aargau canton. Having graduated from secondary school in Brisbane Australia he started to work as a teacher of English in the United Kingdom. Following a year spent in Cairo he became an external economic editor in Zürich where he also settled down. From October 2004 he also spends much time in Berlin, primarily in the former Union of Swiss Writers. He soon discovered though that the language of German literature (hochdeutsch) is not a language to his liking and therefore took the first opportunity to write a text to the theatre project This is not a Love Song in his mother tongue. In recent years Froehling has become successful primarily as a playwright – his play Feindmaterie received an award of the audience during the literature days of St. Gallen.
Federico García Lorca: La Teoria y Juego del Duende
Translation:
A Spanish poet, playwright, music composer and ethnographer was born in 1898 in Andalusia and shot dead on the 19th of August 1936 by the Francoist movement in Grenada. He studied in Madrid where he met Luis Buñuel and Salvator Dali. His first dramatic piece, which was concerned with futile love between a cockroach and a butterfly, was laughed at by the spectators. The opening of his play Mariana Pineda in 1927 however was met by an overwhelming success. In the meantime he also established himself as a poet and became one of the key representatives of the Spanish avant-garde period. However at the end of the 20s he started to suffer from increasing manio-depressive states resulting from his held back homosexual orientation. He lived in New York for a short period of time but returned to his homeland as a result of the revolution. He died in the course of the ensuing civil war. His work had been predominantly banned during Franco’s dictatorship. His plays are only gradually coming back to prominence since the end of the 1950s.
Amy Sackville: The Still Point
Translation:
Sackville was born in England in 1981. She studied English and theatre studies at Leeds University followed by an MA at Oxford's Exeter College specializing in modernism before taking a job in the publishing industry. She also studied creative writing at London's Goldsmiths College, published shorter pieces of prose, critics and articles. Her debut fiction The Still Point was published in 2010 and received several prestigious literature awards. She lives in West London.
Helen Cross: My Summer of Love
Translation:
The main protagonist, a fifteen years old alcoholic and gambler Mona for whom petty stealing is her main source of income meets Tamsinna, a girl from the higher society whose mother is an actress and whose brother died as a result of a hunger strike. She moves into their luxurious villa where a string of orgy, passion and violence unfolds.
Esther Kinsky: Sommerfrische
Translation:
Writer born in 1956 in the German town of Engelskirchen grew up in Bonn and since than moved around several places: between 1990-2004 she lived in London, spent four years in Hungary since 2004 and currently lives in Berlin. She has also been working as a fiction translator of Polish, Russian and English literature since 1986. To date she translated more than 50 pieces of works. In 2002 she won the Brücke-Berlin Award for the translation of Olga Tokarczuk, in 2009 the Paul Célan Award. Aside from translating she published her own pieces of prose and poetry in journals. The fiction Sommerfrische, drawing inspiration from author’s stay in the Hungarian town of Battonya, takes place in heat summer at a recreational facility located by a river. Seemingly a quiet place where very little is going on, however under the tenacious heat the rest home becomes a breading ground for subtle stories, woven together by author’s gentle sense of humour and a position of uninvolved observer.
Andrus Kivirähk: Jaagup, the artist
Translation:
Born in Tallin in 1970, he studied journalism at Tart University. He represents one of the most memorable individuals from the Estonian writing generation. He has won several literature prizes and his satirical prose was translated into several languages. He captured the hearts of many readers with his fiction books, children’s books and scripts for anime movies. In his satirical fiction Ďábelské časy strange creatures wander between the villagers of a small Estonian village. In the story, which spans over thirty days, the author manages with perfection to bring together Estonian folk tradition with a world of commonplace, daily reality. With thirty-two thousand sold copies Kivirähk became the most widely read Estonian author in 2000. Protagonists of the comedy Blue Carriage who grew up during the communist era come back to their youth through over a bottle of vodka at a birthday party. They plunge deep into nostalgic memories that abound with symbolism and recollections of communist socialism.
Eva Menasse: Vienna
Translation:
Menasse was born in 1970 in Vienna. She studies Germanic Studies and History, worked as an editor of the Profil magazine and later in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Journal. Her first work Holocaust Under Trial published in 2000 is an elaboration of the court process with the denier of the final solution David Irving. She was also active as a correspondent in Prague and Berlin. Today she lives as a freelance writer; her husband is a German writer Michael Kumpfmüller. Her first fiction was published under the title Vienna in 2005. A witty story of a Jewish-Christian family has gradually reached the top positions in bestseller ladders. Menasse was a guest to the 2007 Budapest First Novel Festival; in the United Kingdom she received a nomination for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. A set of short stories Odpustitelné hříchy was published in Hungarian in 2010.
Jan Novák: So Far So Good
Translation:
Jan Novák was born in 1953 in Kolin. He emigrated to Austria with his parents and sisters at the age of sixteen. After a years spent in a refugee camp he settled in Chicago where he graduated and which also became his home for numerous years. Today he holds dual citizenship and often travels between Prague and Chigaco. Aside from fiction he also writes theatre plays, film scripts and shoots documentary films. His most successful book, a fictitious version of the story of the Mašín brothers So Far So Good was last published in its Hungarian translation by Márton Beke from the publishing house Kalligram. The author is invited to Budapest as an honorary guest of the international festival and will be personally present during the Literature Night readings.
Krzysztof Varga: Nagrobek z lastryko
Translation:
A writer and journalist was born to a family of a Hungarian father and a Polish mother in 1968 in Warszawa. He studied Polish Studies at a local university. During the 90s he became known for his effort as an active member of organising literature events and later became the head of the cultural section of the Gazeta Wyborzca Journal. He only learned Hungarian later in his life. His mother tongue and identity are both Polish. Nevertheless he has strong relations to Hungary, which also manifest themselves in his work as a journalist. Most space in his work is devoted to the generation of the 80s. Short stories such as Tequilla or Vývojový román were published in Hungarian in 2008. A year later it was the book Guláš z turula, in which he presents Hungary to his fellow countrymen. After his father’s death Varga spent many months in his second home country where he successfully captured the local life rhythm. The focus of his book is on gastronomic habits and local observations that blend with an analysis of political and societal processes and at places paint a not so flattering picture of national customs. Guláš z turula won the Polish most prestigious reader’s literature prize Niké.
László Garaczi: Smrť aneb cokoli chcete
Translation:
Writer, poet and translator. He was born in 1956 in Budapest where he also graduated – first of all in Education Studies and later in Philosophy. He tried a colourful variety of employments such as basket maker, bookshop assistant or an analyst of sociological data. He has been freelance since 1982. In relation to his poetry and prosaic efforts he is characteristic in his use of experimental language forms. His first collection of short stories was published in 1985. Other than this he also published poetry, drama plays and scripts. His pieces of work were translated into English, German and Italian. Garazci won numerous literature awards among others the Zsigmond Móritz scholarship, Soros bursary, Gyula Krúdy Award and the Attila József Prize.
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