"A Central European classic to be discovered and relished."--Eva Hoffman
"A stunning novel. Funny, nightmarish and jubilant."--Libération
Although it took almost 40 years for Metropole to be translated into
English, the book holds up well. In the same way that Kafka becomes
relevant again every time you renew your driver's license, Karinthy
captures that enduring, horrifying and exhilarating state of being at
the mercy of an unfamiliar land.--Jessa Crispin for NPR
"I don't know when I've read a more perfect novel-a dynamically helpless
hero (in the line of Kafka), and a gorgeous spiral of action, nothing
spare, nothing wrong, inventive and without artifice."--Michael Hoffman
in TLS Books of the Year 2009
Budai finds himself in a strange city where he can't understand a word
anyone says. One claustrophobic day blurs into another as he desperately
struggles to survive in this vastly overpopulated metropolis where there
are as many languages as there are people.
Metropole is a suspenseful and haunting Hungarian classic, and a
vision of hell unlike any previously imagined.
Ferenc Karinthy was born in Budapest in 1921. He was a translator
and editor, as well as an award-winning novelist, playwright, and
journalist.
