The Book of Hrabal

Péter Esterházy · 1950–2016 · Hungary

Originally Hrabal könyve (Hungarian)

Why it matters

Mrs. Sky, heavily pregnant, converses by turns with God and with the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal about faith, family, and the absurdities of late-Communist Hungary. Esterházy's playful, theologically restless homage folds one Central European master's voice inside his own.

At a glance

Esterházy's characteristic collage of registers and digressions, compressed into a shorter span than his major novels.