The Door
About the book
The relationship between a writer and her enigmatic housekeeper becomes a story of dependence, loyalty and betrayal.
Original title: Az ajtó
Europe · A READING GUIDE
Hungary
Hungarian literature can be approached through private relationships under historical pressure. Magda Szabó explores this perspective through a writer and her housekeeper Emerence. Choose Krasznahorkai for communal grotesque, or Márai’s Embers for an intimate confrontation between friends. Kertész confronts the camp experience, Szerb joins travel with irony, and Karinthy describes his own brain operation. Kosztolányi reveals a family tragedy beneath provincial calm.
WHERE TO START
- The DoorMagda Szabó
- SatantangoLászló Krasznahorkai
- FatelessnessImre Kertész
Books to begin with
An editorial selection · not rankedNo matches. Try another language or search term.
The Fawn
About the book
The actress Eszter’s confession returns to childhood, class humiliation and destructive jealousy.
Original title: Az őz
Satantango
About the book
Residents of a decaying settlement await salvation from the returning, mysterious Irimiás.
Original title: Sátántangó
The Melancholy of Resistance
About the book
A circus displaying a stuffed whale unleashes anxiety and violence in a Hungarian town.
Original title: Az ellenállás melankóliája
Fatelessness
About the book
A teenage boy describes deportation and the camps with unsettling literalness.
Original title: Sorstalanság
Journey by Moonlight
About the book
A honeymoon in Italy confronts Mihály with a youthful fascination with death and the desire for another life.
Original title: Utas és holdvilág
The Pendragon Legend
About the book
A Hungarian scholar enters a Welsh estate where scholarship meets occult intrigue and adventure.
Original title: A Pendragon legenda
Embers
About the book
Reunited after decades, two friends revisit betrayal, love and their shared past over dinner.
Original title: A gyertyák csonkig égnek
Skylark
About the book
Their adult daughter’s brief absence reveals her ageing parents’ hidden desires and sorrow.
Original title: Pacsirta
A Journey Round My Skull
About the book
A writer records a brain-tumour diagnosis and the operation he underwent while conscious.
Original title: Utazás a koponyám körül
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming
About the book
An indebted baron’s return to his hometown sets off gossip, expectations and provincial intrigue.
Seiobo There Below
About the book
Interconnected accounts of making and encountering art seek beauty and concentration across cultures and eras.
Context and sources
Sources on authors and their connections to this country. Specific edition details appear beside each book. Polish and English originals are not labelled as translations.
- Źródło: autor i tradycja literacka ↗
- László Krasznahorkai — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- László Krasznahorkai — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Imre Kertész — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Antal Szerb — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Antal Szerb — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Sándor Márai — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Dezső Kosztolányi — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Frigyes Karinthy — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- László Krasznahorkai — Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming ↗
- László Krasznahorkai — Seiobo There Below ↗
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