Ranging through a history of changing empires, monarchies, countries, regimes, religions, down to the disappearing shop-fronts and street names, Hungary is always there, through the Millennium celebrations over a century ago, amid the exhausted last days of communism, and even under today’s “illiberal democracy”.

“A vast, sprawling novel linking a meticulously plotted jewel theft in 1896 Budapest to the impulsive crime of passion that sinks the plotters – and to the history of modern Hungary, of the anonymous narrator’s family, and of life on earth…. A heroically scaled assault on narrative and causality…. Ulysses-like.” KIRKUS

“More science fiction than a detective novel, not the usual cynical detective novel, but the big story of the early twentieth century throughout Europe, with the streets and brothels of Budapest at its center…. A fascinating mosaic of the underworld of Budapest, as well as a fantastic heist story.” International Noir Fiction

John Bátki

Book translations