Lázár
The international sensation
-
- €10.99
Publisher Description
"Lázár is an exquisite and masterly pronouncement that a gifted young writer walks among us" Patti Smith
"A truly great writer steps onto the stage" Daniel Kehlmann
"Propulsive, twisting and spell-binding. Lázár is a bold, intricate accomplishment" Lucy Steeds
The snow of the dying century still lay on the edge of the dark forest when Lajos von Lázár, the translucent child with water-blue eyes, first glimpsed the man he would believe to be his father for his whole life and beyond.
The Lázárs have ruled their Hungarian lands for generations. In their ancient castle by the edge of a forest that compels all who enter it to madness, they succumb to every vice and live only to satiate their desires. But the old order is crumbling, and the days of the Habsburg Monarchy are numbered. When Lajos von Lázár inherits, they at last have a baron who can reignite the old splendours, but not even his abilities are proof against the ravages of war and occupation. It will fall to his children - a boy who talks to shadows and a girl who eschews her blue blood - to find a way to stand against oppression and take the first faltering steps towards freedom.
A sweeping epic, taking the reader from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Hungarian National Uprising of 1956, Lázár would be a phenomenal achievement for a writer of any age. With its air of timeless wisdom, it reads like rediscovered classic, making it all the more remarkable that it was written when the author was just twenty-one years old.
Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
THE INTERNATIONAL SENSATION THAT READERS CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF:
'Gothic, slightly surreal, steeped in unease' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'What an amazing book. It's poetically beautiful' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'I was completely hooked . . . an epic, immersive read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Savoring every moment so far' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'It's hard to believe that this book was written when the author was only 22 . . . I was quickly won over' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An aristocratic Hungarian family copes with cascading trauma over three generations and two world wars in the extraordinary English-language debut from Swiss writer Biedermann. The gothic-tinged story begins at the turn of the 20th century, with the birth of Lajos von Lázár. Lajos's mother, Maria, was impregnated by the family's horse groom, Pál, a fact she keeps secret from her husband, Sándor, a baron who, along with Lajos's six-year-old sister, Ilona, is repulsed by Lajos's "translucent" skin, which reveals his internal organs. Pál dies in an accident shortly after Lajos is born, and Maria slips into a deep depression and dies by suicide when Lajos and Ilona are in their teens. Sándor sends the children to a Catholic boarding school on the eve of WWI, where Lajos, a sensitive and impressionable child, is sexually assaulted by another boy. After the war, Lajos marries and inherits Sándor's title and land after he dies from falling during a drunken stupor. The couple's two children come of age on the eve of WWII, which brings on waves of upheaval and loss during German occupation followed by Hungary's turn to communism after the war. Biedermann artfully weaves surreal images and dramatic irony into the family tragedy, as when preteen Lajos fantasizes about escaping his life by sailing on the Titanic, only to feel "as if he himself had drowned" when he hears that it sank. This is a marvel.
