After more than 60 years, this exciting novel received a chance to break out of the isolation imposed by the Hungarian language, and find its proper place among the great works of world literature – perhaps on the same shelf as Umberto Eco's novels. 

This mysterious detective story, or rather, parody of a detective story, recounts the adventures of János Bátky, a Hungarian Anglicist who travels to England to study old manuscripts, and gets mixed up in a strange story, in which crime, eroticism, cultural history and mysticism (including the heritage of the alchemists and the Rosicrucians) abound.

Antal Szerb (1901-1945) was an extremely erudite writer and literary scholar, whose History of World Literature and History of Hungarian Literature has made literary history a fascinating evening read for several generations of Hungarian students. During World War II, he was taken to a Hungarian Nazi forced labour camp because of his Jewish origin, and killed in 1945.

This is the second novel by Szerb to come out in English, after Journey by Moonlight (see our review), also published by Pushkin Press (in 2001) and translated by Len Rix, who has also interpreted Magda Szabó's internationally acclaimed novel The Door for the English audience.

The book was presented last Wednesday at thze Hungarian Cultural Centre in London by the eminent British critic, Paul Bailey.

Previously on HLO
An interview with translator Len Rix

***
The Complete Review's review on Journey by Moonlight
***
Antal Szerb: profile in The Hungarian Quarterly