Hungarian Fiction Week

Sándor Jászberényi

I was born a feral beast.

At the time of my birth, I tore my mother apart. It wasn’t on purpose. I think the circumstances caused it. There was a lot of blood in the hospital room.

My father, who gutted animals as part of his occupation, couldn’t bear to look.

He needed two dark beers and two shots of liquor to quiet the horror inside him.

Krisztina Tóth

The screaming could be heard in the outside corridor, someone had moved house out of me, never to return.

Ádám Bodor

  REBI   I am still half-asleep in the early hours when I hear sirens approaching the farm and it occurs to me that it’s

Eva Peterfy-Novak

  MOSCOW II.   Read part one of Moscow here   I’m sitting on the toilet staring at the pink bathroom. The reason it’s pink

Daniel Levente Pal

  THE 8TH DISTRICT OF GOD   (excerpts)   The location is the outer 8th district of Budapest, which is called Józsefváros (Josephtown). This is

Eva Peterfy-Novak

  MOSCOW I.   Read part two of Moscow here   “Do you know anything about her?” I ask the friend of my little sister

Vilmos Csanyi

  THE SCENT OF PERFECTION   In which the Book is introduced to the reader, some sacred texts are discussed, and there begins the story

Sándor Jászberényi: Banana Split

With the leftover beer I washed down two pills. I took Xanax to help me sleep. The first few weeks it worked, but as time passed, I had to take more and more.

Zsolt Láng

  TWO CHOICES        Translated by Erika Mihálycsa   She was walking two steps ahead, knowing he wouldn’t dare to lag behind now. A car

Sándor Jászberényi: Somewhere on the Border

The Gaza border crossing was out in the desert. Low brown hills rose on the horizon, the air above them appearing to quiver with the wind-blown sands. On the Palestinian side there stood a lone café, built with one side open.

Sándor Jászberényi: The Majestic Clouds

Around noon the black clouds appear seemingly from nowhere. Majestic clouds, thick and dark. They hang in the center of the sky like mirages. They appear contemplative, reaching toward the horizon, their color not much different from tar.

Sándor Jászberényi: The Devil is a Black Dog

The moon rose high above the town, illuminating the clouds, the apartment buildings, and the hills beyond in a red glow. The air was cool, like it was every evening in the hills.

Miklos Szentkuthy

  PRAE   (an excerpt)   ————————————————————————— Ulva and a young fellow together in the wood (as Leatrice’s solitude changed into Veronica’s story, Veronica’s solitude

Gabor Schein

  AN EXTREME CASE   For half-a-year I shared a dorm room with Hendrik. The dormitory stood in the middle of a dreary, windswept housing