[Yale-readings] 5-5: Reading by Gyorgy Dragoman

[Nancy Kuhl]

>
>The White King
>Gyorgy Dragoman: The White King
>Monday, May 5th, 2008 @ 5.00PM - Labyrinth Books NH
>Labyrinth Books invites you to a reading with 
>the young and celebrated Hungarian author Gyorgy 
>Dragoman in honor of his new heartbreaking 
>coming-of-ag novel -- an international sensation 
>about to be published in 20 countries.
>
>When his father abruptly departs for work with 
>some strange men he called his 'colleagues,' 
>eleven-year-old Djata must become the man of the 
>house. It isn't until months later when his 
>father still hasn't returned that the truth is 
>finally revealed to him: his father was arrested 
>by the secret police. Djata knows that he must 
>learn to fill his father's shoes, even though 
>among his friends he is still a boy: fighting 
>neighborhood gang wars, 'volunteering' to dig 
>ditches, playing soccer on grass that might be 
>radioactive, having crushes, sneaking into 
>secret screening rooms, and shooting at stray 
>cats with his gun-happy, and politically influential, grandfather.
>
>But this depiction of life in a totalitarian 
>state - the only world Djata knows - is tempered 
>by the sheer, hilarious absurdity of the 
>situations he finds himself in, by his enduring 
>faith in his father's return, and by the moments 
>of unexpected beauty and hope and the small acts 
>of kindness that mark any life.
>
>As in the works of Mark Haddon, David Mitchell, 
>and Marjane Satrapi, Djata's child's-eye view 
>lends a power and immediacy to his story, making 
>us laugh and ache in recognition and reminding 
>us all of our shared humanity. Dragoman's 
>urgent, humorous and melancholy picture of a 
>childhood behind the Iron Curtain introduces a 
>stunning new voice in contemporary fiction.
>
>GYÖRGY DRAGOMÁN, 34, is a Beckett scholar and 
>film critic. He has also translated works by 
>Beckett, Joyce, Ian McEwan, Ivrine Welsh, and 
>Mickey Donelly into Hungarian. Awarded Hungary's 
>prestigious Sándor Márai Prize, THE WHITE KING, 
>translated from Hungarian by Paul Olchváry, is 
>loosely based on Dragomán's experience growing 
>up in 1980s Romania under Ceausescu. He lives in 
>Budapest with his wife, a poet, and their two young sons.
>
>This event is free and open to the public.
>Please call 203 787 2848 with any questions.

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