A Traveler's Guide to A Pál utcai fiúk

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.

“The reader is locked in a dance dictated by the novel’s fractured temporality, even as, within the bounds of each chapter, time marches on mercilessly.” – Hanna Zelma Horányi continues HLO's Starter Pack series with László Krasznahorkai’s Satantango.

"I know now that I can trust my intuition, that I can build up a story arc unconsciously, the themes will intersect and mesh, I don’t need to forcibly control everything. And I also know that if I put in the effort, I am able to follow an outline, albeit a bit grudgingly." – In the third installment of her Workshop Diary, speculative fiction writer Anita Moskát examines the benefits and pitfalls she's navigated when writing by intuition or following an outline.

"When worldbuilding in speculative fiction, the biggest trap is falling in love with our own creation as it swells into a monster: it dominates the plot, the characters, the theme, and before long we’re reading nothing more than a fictional history book." – Speculative fiction author Anita Moskát considers the tenets of silent video games when applied to storytelling and worldbuilding, in the second installment of the Workshop Diary.

“I have to go to Nowhere Land so that I’m as empty and receptive to the new story as the blank paper before me. When my legs are shaking, when I’m afraid I don’t know the first thing about writing – that’s when I’m ready.” – We present the first instalment of the Workshop Diary, written by Anna Moskát and translated by Austin Wagner, which reflects on the paralysing yet vital break between books.

"Hysteria is both ironic and visceral here: ironic because we understand that what was called “hysteria” seventy or eighty years ago would be diagnosed and treated differently today; and visceral because of the play’s loud noises, flashing lights, pale faces, split identities, and abrupt action." – Diana Senechal offers an English-friendly guide to another Hungarian theatre highlight. Hisztéria üzenőfüzete, directed by Simon Regős, is showing at the Bethlen Téri Színház on 29-31 January.

We start the new year off by continuing our Traveler's Guide series with Diana Senechal. Next up, she introduces Majd ha fagy! – neoreneszánsz rally (“When It Freezes! – Neo-Renaissance Rally”), created and directed by Zoltán Sas and Dávid Kerek, produced by SICC, and with source material drawn from Renaissance songs in five languages combined with poetry and prose from Fedél Nélkül (“Roofless – The Homeless’ Journal”), a Budapest street paper by homeless artists. Next performance is on 13 January, so get your tickets soon.

In preparation for the 2026 release of a new selection of Attila József's poems, translated into English by Ágnes Lehóczky and Adam Piette and published by Shearsman Books, we're pleased to share with you Lehóczky's foreword to the volume of this poet whose work is "surrealist, quasi anarchist, existentialist, Villonesque, tough-minded, deeply drenched in Hungarian folklore and folk songs, passionate, lyrical, elegiac..."

While there is plenty of well-deserved praise for László Krasznahorkai's Nobel Prize in Literature from the expected outlets, the Hungarian people have found countless creative ways to show their support and respect for the author, from guerilla posters to the Nobel Mobile to art exhibitions, and more.