A Traveler’s Guide to Reggel és este

"This Nádas is reminiscent of the Nádas I know, but is a subvariant, a variation, a musical rest I have never met in person." – A farewell to Péter Nádas from András Forgách.

He moved his entire being when he wrote, he surrendered himself to the writing: Do with me what you will, you have found a partner – it is no accident that he called writing monastic work. – Viktória Radics bids farewell to Péter Nádas.

"It is hard to consider the absence of Colours and Years from set reading lists and not read it as an expression of the belief that women’s fates – especially when told by women – do not belong in the core canon." – Hanna Zelma Horányi continues her Starter Pack series with an introduction of Margit Kaffka's Colours and Years.

Looking for an excuse to stay indoors and out of the scorching sun? Or perhaps a reason to lay out in the grass and soak up some rays? Either way, HLO's list of summer reads has you covered!

In this extensive essay and teaser to her recently released book, More and Less than a Friend: The Songwriting Partnership of Tamás Cseh and Géza Bereményi in Hungary, Diana Senechal gives us an in-depth look at the process of translating the songs of what is perhaps Hungary's most iconic musical duo.

Five novels (some available in English, others waiting to be translated) – written not by Krasznahorkai and still suitable for everyone who loved his works.

'As Péter Esterházy once succinctly said, the Hungarian bourgeoisie as a class was made up of exactly one person, Márai himself.' – In our latest addition to the Starter Pack series, Hanna Zelma Horányi introduces Sándor Márai's Confessions of a Bourgeois I-II.

Eszter T. Molnár, a writer whose incredible range across genre and language is matched only by her unflinching precision, is HLO's author of the month this July.

Based on Ferenc Molnár's beloved coming-of-age novel The Paul Street Boys, Krisztián Grecsó's stage adaptation, directed by László Marton, will be showing on 14 June at 14:30 and 19:00 at the Vígszínház.

Péter Závada’s lyrics froth with political and pop culture jokes, philosophical quips, ironic self-commentary, wordplay, and allusions to Sardou’s libretto. – Diana Senechal recommends a play for the summer, A Répakirály (“The Carrot King”), directed by Balázs Kovalik.

"In an environment of distrustful human relationships, how is intimacy possible, if at all?" – Mónika Dánél reflects on free relationships, fragile intimate and family relations, and women in the writing of Ádám Bodor. The final installment of three in her series on the Hungarian author.

"Although we can read about all these transformations in Hungarian, we do not learn what language(s) the characters themselves speak; what we do know, however, is that it is not Hungarian." – Mónika Dánél reflects on flavours, ruins, and multilingual names in the writing of Ádám Bodor. The second installment of three in her series on the Hungarian author.

"Words become prisms, and their illuminated, condensed spaces of reference are capable of revealing the irreplaceable mediumship of literary language." – Mónika Dánél reflects on olfactory poetics and the illusion of freedom in the writing of Ádám Bodor. The first installment of three in her series on the Hungarian author.

Diana Senechal offers an English-friendly guide to another Hungarian theatre highlight as part of HLO's Traveler's Guide series. Alexander Ostrovsky's Erdő (The Forest), directed by Aba Sebestyén, with music by Tibor Cári, and based on Imre Makai's translation, opens on 9 April at the Szigligeti Theatre in Szolnok and will run until 24 April.

"For his Western readers, this was essential: no one opened their eyes quite like Kertész, who, broken by his daily experience of Eastern European dictatorship, directed their gaze to the devastating experience of the Holocaust." – Imre Kertész died ten years ago. In his memory, we are publishing Katharina Raabe's essay on Imre Kertész for the Black Boxes series, a collaboration between Litera and the Academy of Arts, Berlin.

"If Fatelessness is on one level the story Gyuri Köves, it is also a text whose ambition exceeds the mere telling of that story. As Kertész explained, in writing Fatelessness, he was reflecting not only on the Holocaust but on the nature of dictatorships in general." – Hanna Zelma Horányi continues the HLO Starter Pack series with an essay on Imre Kertész's Fatelessness, in honor of the Nobel Prize-winning author's passing ten years ago.

Who are we, if our reason for living is defined by those in power? What principles in our lives are inviolable? What compromises do we make in the name of stability and peace? Are we willing to take the risks that freedom requires? – Diana Senechal introduces a masterpiece of Hungarian drama written by János Székely, and currently showing at the National Theatre of Szeged.

"I frequently hear that speculative fiction, especially fantasy, is “easy” to write because all you have to do is come up with something wild and impossible, and presto, you’re done. No need to worry about reality, no need to carry out any research, imagination is all you need. In reality, it’s the exact opposite which is true." – We close out Anita Moskát's workshop diary with her musings on fighting for readers' trust when writing speculative fiction.

"I fear I think about these things more than is healthy. I fear I’m just avoiding the text. I fear the text is what I truly fear." – in her latest workshop diary, speculative fiction author Anita Moskát considers and confesses her deepest fears as a writer.