Shimmering Details, Volume II: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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The magnum opus of one of Europe's greatest living writers. In Shimmering Details, Volume II, Pter Ndas delves deeper into his and his parents' lives during the tumultuous years spanning the rise of Hungarian communism in 1948 to the brutal suppression of the 1956 uprising. Zeroing in on this critical period-which overlapped with the formative years of his childhood-Ndas concludes his monumental history of a family whose own experiences and fortunes are deeply intertwined with two centuries of Hungarian history. This second volume is a composite portrait of life lived at the nexus of world-historical forces-a jewel-like study that holds up different facets of the human experience to the light of Ndas's singular prose style. What emerges is a memoir of unusual insight and exceptional power. Hailed by Deborah Eisenberg as an "extraordinary writer," Ndas has confirmed his place among Europe's greatest living authors.

Reviews

"Ndas, one of the greatest living writers, recognizes, on one hand, that there is no escape from or outside of history--its vast horrors and deep ironies--and simultaneously that the imaginative writer has a responsibility to subjectivity: the minute particulars of experience that are too fine-grained for the historian tracking the rise and fall of nations and empires." --Matthew Gasda, Compact

Author Bio

Pter Ndas was born in Budapest in 1942. Among his works translated into English are the novels Parallel Stories, A Book of Memories, The End of a Family Story, and Love, as well as a collection of stories and essays, Fire and Knowledge; A Lovely Tale of Photography; and Own Death. He lives with his wife in Gombosszeg, in western Hungary.

Judith Sollosy is an editor, an academic, and a literary translator who is best known for her translations of the contemporary Hungarian authors Pter Esterhzy, Mihly Kornis, Pter Ndas, and Istvn rkny. Her own writing on translation has appeared in PEN America, Asymptote, and Words Without Borders, among other publications.