"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 Láz''r, 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
Genre: Literary Fiction
"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 Láz''r, 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
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Lazar is an astonishing book - a multi-generational family story filled with deeply original characters and gripping scenes, at times realistic, at times disturbingly dreamlike. This novel would be an event in any case. But the fact that its author has only just reached adulthood turns its publication into a thunderclap. A truly great writer steps onto the stage, in full possession of his powers." - Daniel Kehlmann
"Lazar is an exquisite and masterly pronouncement that a gifted young writer walks among us." - Patti Smith
"Lazar is an exquisite and masterly pronouncement that a gifted young writer walks among us." - Patti Smith
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Used availability for Nelio Biedermann's Lazar