News of HLOhttp://www.hlo.hu/http://www.hlo.hu/news/interview_with_ferenc_barnasIn mental defeat, doctors do not really have the means to help you, but if you try to spring upwards rather than simply go down, then this dynamics may produce a very special personality.Wed, 15 May 2013 12:41:36 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/ferenc_barnas_another_death_excerpt_from_the_novelBarnás has found an authentic viewpoint and a language that is unique in contemporary fiction to trace that "other life" underneath the life of each of us.Wed, 15 May 2013 11:37:48 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/at_the_service_of_literary_translators_the_project_babelmatrix_has_entered_a_new_phaseEver since its creation shortly after the turn of the millennium, the project BabelMatrix has undergone several transformations, and it continues to grow.Mon, 13 May 2013 15:01:46 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/kertesz_s_dossier_k_now_out_in_englishThe first and only memoir from the Nobel Prize-winning author, in the form of an illuminating, often funny, and often combative interview—conducted by the author of himself. Imre Kertész’s response to the hasty biographies and profiles that followed his 2002 Nobel Prize.Thu, 09 May 2013 10:39:28 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/best_translated_book_award_2013_goes_to_satantangoGeorge Szirtes’s translation of László Krasznahorkai’s Satantango is the winner of the Best Translated Book Award, founded by the literary website Three Percent at the University of Rochester, NY.Mon, 06 May 2013 10:33:51 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/oravecz_imre_interjuIn his new novel Imre Oravecz tells the story of a Hungarian immigrant family in America at the end of the 19th century. We talked to the writer about the genesis of the novel, about how he left Hungary three times, and why he always came back.Thu, 02 May 2013 16:53:48 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/exhibition_on_frigyes_karinthy_at_pim_budapest“This crazy guy was the greatest genius among us”, Dezső Kosztolányi said about his friend Frigyes Karinthy. A new exhibition at the Petőfi Museum of Literature in Budapest focuses on Karinthy’s life and works, showcasing photos, manuscripts, objects and technical devices.Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:50:24 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/hungarian_novelist_on_the_granta_listGranta’s list of Best Young British Novelists for this decade was announced a week ago. There is a Hungarian name on the list: David Szalay.Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:49:02 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/interview_with_m_h_ellis"Perhaps my novel could be called a search for identity on a national and personal – not to mention, pharmaceutical – level." - Interview with Matt Henderson Ellis, American expat author living in Budapest and editor of the Budapest-based literary review Pilvax Magazine.Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:26:44 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/hunkies_in_toledoImre Oravecz's new novel, Californian Quail takes the reader into the world of Eastern European guest workers in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. The author spoke about the traumas and the predicament of Hungarian workers in America at a press breakfast in Budapest.Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:20:31 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/20th_international_book_festivalThe International Book Festival Budapest, a major event of the Central European region, will be held between 18 and 21 April 2013 with almost a hundred participants from twenty-five countries.Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:17:20 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/copywriting_and_literatureWhile in some parts of the world writers often appear in the media, and even lend their faces to ads, Hungarian writers rarely seem to descend from the ivory tower. So a poet advertising a dish soap still causes consternation for many.Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:50:21 +0200http://www.hlo.hu/news/hungarian_presence_at_the_salon_du_livre_paris_2013As part of the Balassi Institute’s Publishing Hungary programme, several works of classical and contemporary Hungarian literature were launched in French translation at the Salon du Livre in Paris last week.Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:12:57 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/gyorgy_lang_hanele_excerpt"If this was her fate, why rebel? It couldn’t get any better, only worse" – an excerpt from Hanele, a short novel about an ugly, miserable Jewish orphan girl in a pre-World War II shtetl. The book, rich in ethnographic detail and betraying strong empathy for the outcast, was written by the polymath writer and composer György Láng.Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:17:35 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/vilmos_kondor_and_the_hungarian_hard_boiled_thrillerThe novels of Vilmos Kondor, the first Hungarian author of hard-boiled thrillers, became instant bestsellers in Hungary, and made the previously despised genre of thriller a subject of interest for mainstream literary critics.Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:37:39 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/interview_with_jonathan_franzen"Comedy can certainly be bitter, but it’s also a way of forgiving people, including yourself." - We talked to Jonathan Franzen about anxiety, American families and humour.Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:15:43 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/hungarian_presence_at_the_2013_leipzig_book_fairThe next event in the Publishing Hungary programme, sponsored by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary, will be the Hungarian presence at the Leipzig Book Fair, one of the greatest literary events in Europe. The book fair will be held between 14 and 17 March, 2013.Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:45:10 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/poem_of_the_month_istvan_agh_the_night_dogThis poem by István Ágh (1938) draws us into a world of darkness, anxiety and fear, where you don't know any more who fears whom, where landscape, animal and human are all imbued with a nameless rage.Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:13:28 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/interview_with_judit_kovatsJudit Kováts’s novel is written from the viewpoint of a 19-year-old girl during the Soviet occupation as she is trying to escape Russian soldiers, bombs and forced labour. How is oral history transformed into literature? – An interview with the author.Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:47:59 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/judit_kovats_deniedAnna was a carefree teenager in 1944. Then World War II broke out. She is now 85 years old, and narrates her life, broken forever by her war experiences. Judit Kováts's "Denied" shows history as we have never seen it in books and sources.Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:28:41 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/hungarians_writers_at_the_jerusalem_book_festivalFour Hungarian writers – György Spiró, György Dragomán, Gábor Schein and Géza Röhrig – were guests at the Jerusalem Book Festival, held between 10-15 February 2013.Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:03:47 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/summer_brunch"For the truth is, my boy," he always told me, "is only the pawns matter, the major pieces are always the first to be exchanged." So that was my father's lesson to me. I of course disregarded his advice, and thereby demolished his reality, the imaginary one based on unwritten codes; usually using two knights, the occasional rook helping out from the background.Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:18:44 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/janos_lackfi_what_are_hungarians_likeThe last few years have been abundant in books specializing in understanding and interpreting the attributes and the behaviour of Hungarians. János Lackfi experiments with well-known elements that have been on the periodic table of Hungarians for decades, and tries to create a new and interesting compound.Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:18:17 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/voronezh"I don't get to the Opera as often as I'd like. I'm too busy crawling on my belly, wiping out my fellow men", István Örkény wrote from the Russian front in World War II. His play "Voronezh" commemorates the fatal offensive against the Hungarian Army, launched seventy years ago.Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:28:57 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/literary_lovers_bela_balazs_and_leni_riefenstahlIt was by mere chance that the Führer's favourite film director made "Triumph of the Will" for the Nazis rather than the Bolsheviks.Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:20:13 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/bans_and_taboos_censorship_in_the_kadar_eraAccording to Communist ideology, literature shapes consciousness. This explains why the regime was so much interested in literature. – A discussion on censorship in Communist Hungary.Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:36:15 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/i_want_to_suck_your_blood_noemi_szecsi_finno_ugrian_vampireBlood-sucker and tale-teller: Noémi Szécsi’s latter-day vampire girl is a combination of the eastern European and the Indian vampire. - Ottilie Mulzet's review on The Finno-Ugrian Vampire, recently published in English.Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:23:35 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/drowned_by_time_friends_and_or_informersWhen years ago his friend called him to say there was something he wanted to talk about, Balázs Györe had no idea this friend was going to announce that he regularly informed on him in the 1970s.Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:26:19 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/miklos_radnoti_and_fanni_gyarmatiTheir love was not an idyll without tensions as the textbooks would have it, yet that is precisely what made it an indissoluble bond, still alive today. Fanni Gyarmati, who was 100 last year, is still living in the apartment that the couple used to share.Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:14:12 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/the_chronicler_of_writers_love_storiesInitially, writing about the love life of Hungarian writers and poets was a mere pastime. But before he knew it, Krisztián Nyáry's Facebook posts became so popular that within a year he gained 23 thousand followers.Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:07:02 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/interview_with_gabor_t_szantoAn interview with Gábor T. Szántó about his new book Threesome, a novel of missing tradition, and the reconciliation of freedom and the modern way of life.Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:10:39 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/gabor_t_szanto_threesome_excerpt_from_the_novelA master, a student and a woman are trying to extricate themselves from the dead end situations of their life in typical present-day Budapest scenes. Can we step out of the shadow of the past, or will we carry it within ourselves forever?Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:45:39 +0100http://www.hlo.hu/news/pen_name_p_howard_jeno_rejto_died_70_years_agoJenő Rejtő is the only Hungarian pulp fiction writer appreciated by literary historians. He died seventy years ago today.Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:34:39 +0100