Novel
Satantango
Sátántangó
László Krasznahorkai · 1985
Synopsis
On a Hungarian plain beaten by autumn rain, the last inhabitants of an abandoned farming estate vegetate, drink at the pub, spy on one another and think of leaving without ever doing so. The doctor, shut away at home, watches them and records everything. A rumour spreads: Irimiás and Petrina, two men thought dead, are on their way to the estate. Some expect salvation from them, and Mrs Schmidt dreams that Irimiás will tear her away from this life.
Context
The author's first novel appeared in 1985 from Magvető. It is built like the dance from which it takes its name: twelve chapters, each a single paragraph, six numbered going forward and then six going back, where the references forward and backward enclose the reader. Critics have seen in it the kinship of Kafka, Bulgakov or García Márquez. Béla Tarr made it into a seven-hour film in 1994; the French translation by Joëlle Dufeuilly appeared from Gallimard in 2000, the English one by George Szirtes in 2012.
Who it is for
Blocks of prose without paragraph breaks, with long sentences: you have to accept the rhythm before you understand. Translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
The first novel of a writer crowned by the Swedish Academy in 2025, the second Hungarian after Imre Kertész.