Péter Nádas - Leipzig Book Fair 2012

Péter Nádas (born 14 October 1942) is a Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist.

Biography[link]

He was born in Budapest as the son of László Nádas and Klára Tauber. After the takeover of the Hungarian Nazis, the Arrow Cross Party on 15 October 1944, Klára Tauber escaped with her son to Bačka and Novi Sad, but returned to the capital directly before the Siege of Budapest. Péter Nádas survived the siege together with his mother in the flat of his uncle, the journalist Pál Aranyossi.

Even though his parents were illegal Communists during World War II and involved with the Communist administration later on, as well, they had both their sons—Péter and Pál—baptized in the Reformed (Calvinist) Church of Pozsonyi Street. His mother died of an illness when he was 13. In 1958, his father—head of department in one of the ministries, slandered with accusations of embezzlement, then exonerated by the court of all charges—committed suicide; Péter Nádas became an orphan at 16. Magda Aranyossi became the guardian of the two children.

Between 1961 and 1963 Péter Nádas studied journalism and photography. He worked as a journalist at a Budapest magazine (Pest Megyei Hírlap) from 1965 to 1969. He also worked as a playwright and a photographer. Since 1969 he has been a freelancer.

In 1990 he married Magda Salamon (with whom he had been living since 1962). In 1984 they moved to a small village in western Hungary, Gombosszeg, where they have resided ever since, though he also has a residence in the Castle District of Buda.

In 1993, he was elected member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts.

Since the early 1970s, he has frequently spent time in Berlin, Germany, attending lectures at Humboldt University or reading in the Staatsbibliothek. He has been a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institute for Advanced Study. In 2006, he was elected a member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. He enjoys a high reputation in Germany.

Works[link]

After publishing volumes of short stories, he published his first novel The End of a Family Story in 1977.

He published his second novel, A Book of Memories in 1986. It took Nádas eleven years to write this book. The motto of this novel is from the Gospel according to John: "But he spake of the temple of his body" (John, 2.21). In this novel, Nádas describes the world as a system of relations linking human bodies to each other. This book earned Nádas comparisons to Proust.

He published his latest novel, the three-volume Parallel Stories (I: The Mute Realm, II: In the Depths of Night, III: A Breath of Freedom) in 2005. This novel is a multitude of independent stories melt into one single narrative. It took Nádas eighteen years to complete this book. The novel has been described as "a virtuoso combination of nineteenth-century high realism with the experimentalism of the nouveau roman", while "the real narrative is that of bodies' actions on one another, their attraction and desires, their mutual memories" (Gábor Csordás). The plot is constructed around the histories of two families: one—the Lippay-Lehrs, who are Hungarian, the other—the Döhrings, who are German. These two main threads link irregularly up to one another via specific events or figures.

Nádas' other novels include Lovely Tale of Photography, Yearbook, On Heavenly and Earthly Love, and A Dialogue with Richard Swartz. Death is a recurrent theme in Nádas' work, particularly in Own Death, based on his experience of clinical death.

His writing has been described as intellectual, detailed, strong, innovative, and demanding.

A volume of interviews with Péter Nádas, by Zsófia Mihancsik (Nincs mennyezet, nincs födém) was published in 2006.

Bibliography[link]

Works in English[link]

• Parallel Stories: A Novel (ISBN 978-0374229764)
• A Lovely Tale of Photography (ISBN 8090217168)
• The End of a Family Story (ISBN 0140291792)
• A Book of Memories (ISBN 0374115435) (ISBN 9780312427962)(New York) (ISBN 022403524X) (ISBN 0374115435) (ISBN 0140275673) (ISBN 0099766310)(London)
• "A Tale About Fire and Knowledge" in the anthology Caught in a Story
• Love (ISBN 0374529558)
• Own Death (ISBN 3865210104)
• Fire and Knowledge: Fiction and Essays (ISBN 0374299641)

Awards[link]

He has received numerous awards, including

• the Prize for Hungarian Art, 1989,
• the Austrian State Prize for European Literature (Österreichischer Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur), Austria, 1991,
• Kossuth Prize, Hungary, 1992,
• the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding (Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung), Germany, 1995,
• the Vilenica International Prize for Literature, Slovenia, 1998,
• the Prize for the Best Foreign Book (Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger), France, 1998,
• the Franz Kafka Prize for Literature, Czech Republic, 2003.

v t e Hungarian literature Early sources Funeral Sermon and Prayer Old Hungarian Lamentations of Mary Gesta Hungarorum Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum Chronicon Pictum Sándor Petőfi 15th – 17th century Bálint Balassi Péter Bornemisza Albert Gergei István Gyöngyösi Gáspár Heltai János Sylvester Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos Janus Pannonius Péter Pázmány János Rimay Miklós Zrínyi 18th – 19th century Zoltán Ambrus János Arany József Bajza János Batsányi Elek Benedek Dániel Berzsenyi Miklós Bethlen Sándor Bródy Gergely Csiky Mihály Csokonai Vitéz József Eötvös Mihály Fazekas János Garay Géza Gárdonyi Ignotus Mór Jókai József Kármán József Katona Ferenc Kazinczy Zsigmond Kemény Károly Kisfaludy Sándor Kisfaludy Ferenc Kölcsey Imre Madách Kelemen Mikes Kálmán Mikszáth Sándor Petőfi István Széchenyi Ede Szigligeti Mihály Tompa János Vajda Mihály Vörösmarty 20th century Endre Ady Lajos Áprily Mihály Babits Béla Balázs Miklós Bánffy Géza Csáth Tibor Déry György Faludy István Fekete Miksa Fenyő Jolán Földes Milán Füst Andor Endre Gelléri Géza Gyóni Béla Hamvas Jenő Heltai Ferenc Herczeg Gyula Illyés Éva Janikovszky Attila József Gyula Juhász Margit Kaffka László Kálnoky Ferenc Karinthy Frigyes Karinthy Lajos Kassák Géza Képes János Kodolányi Károly Kós Dezső Kosztolányi Gyula Krúdy Ervin Lázár Menyhért Lengyel Iván Mándy Sándor Márai Ferenc Molnár Ferenc Móra Zsigmond Móricz Gáspár Nagy Lajos Nagy László Nagy Ágnes Nemes Nagy László Németh József Nyírő Géza Ottlik István Örkény Géza Páskándi János Pilinszky Miklós Radnóti Jenő Rejtő Sándor Reményik Sándor Sík István Sinka András Sütő Dezső Szabó Lőrinc Szabó Magda Szabó Sándor Szathmári Mária Szepes Antal Szerb Domokos Szilágyi Áron Tamási Józsi Jenő Tersánszky Árpád Tóth István Tömörkény Albert Wass Sándor Weöres Lajos Zilahy Péter Zsoldos Contemporary Tamás Cseh Sándor Csoóri István Csukás Péter Esterházy Ágnes Gergely Márton Gerlóczy Gábor Görgey Anna Jókai Ferenc Juhász Sándor Kányádi Márton Karinthy Ákos Kertész Imre Kertész György Konrád László Krasznahorkai Péter Lengyel László L. Lőrincz Béla Markó György Moldova Péter Müller Péter Nádas Ádám Nádasdy Gábor Nógrádi Imre Oravecz Zsolt Őz Lajos Parti Nagy Zsuzsa Rácz Zsuzsa Rakovszky András Réz Pál Salamon Richárd Salinger György Spiró Károly Szakonyi Dezső Tandori Miklós Vámos Category:Hungarian writers

External links[link]

• Gábor Csordás: The body of the text. Corporeal writing in Péter Nádas's "Parallel Stories"
• Ottilie Mulzet: A la recherche de corps perdus: Notes from a reading of Péter Nádas's A néma tartomány (The Mute Realm)
• Multilingual Literature Database of the Hungarian Book Foundation
• Péter Nádas: Burial
• Susan Sontag: Nádas's Comedy of Interment
• Works by or about Péter Nádas in libraries (WorldCat catalog)