To Err Is Divine: A Novel

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

With To Err Is Divine, Hungarian writer Agota Bozai has fashioned a keen reflection on the overpowering excesses of human greed. Anna Levay, a widow and secondary-school teacher in a small resort city in Lake Balaton, is close to retirement. One evening, after her bath, Anna discovers a strange light floating about her head. It is a halo, like that of a saint. Anna is not a particularly good person and is, in fact, an atheist. She sets about trying to conceal her halo, but realises that only the truly innocent, small children and animals, can see it. But the concurrent power to heal and produce miracles are visible to a less exclusive audience, and once the greedy mayor and physician of the town discover Anna's new gifts, they set about using her to their advantage. They build a luxury health resort and line their pockets. Written as surveillance reports from heaven, the eleven chapters recount the event surrounding the (as it turns out) mistakenly bestowed halo in this richly ironic tale. Bozai's novel, first published in Hungarian in 1998, is a stunning portrait of a world disposed to depravity in the pursuit of wealth.

Reviews

"A delightful story with a fine sense of social satire. It is precisely the almost sober style coupled with precise detail that provides the wonderful irony, and in many passages the splendid narrative style is reminiscent of that of Joseph Roth."

Author Bio

Agota Bozai has worked as a freelance journalist for Hungarian radio and television. Her first novel, Persian Divan, was published in Budapest in 1997.