The Last Window-Giraffe

Description

This book is about the madness of everyday life under a dictatorship. It shifts in theme and time, testing the borderlines of prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction, history and autobiography - all in the unassuming guise of a child's ABC. Filled with his own striking photographs, Peter Zilahy gives fascinating insight into whole other universe behind the Iron Curtain. 'The Last Window-Giraffe' is one of the most unusual, beguiling books you will ever read.

Peter Zilahy was born in 1970 in Budapest, Hungary. He is a writer and performer with diverse interests. His books have been translated into 18 languages. In 2001 he was a lecturer at New York University. His dictionary-novel 'The Last Window-Giraffe' won the Book of the Year Prize in Ukraine in 2003. Lawrence Norfolk is the author of three novels, including 'In the Shape of a Boar'. Tim Wilkinson worked as an academic editor in Hungary in the 1970s. Alongside a number of translations of historical works, he has translated three novels by Imre Kertesz.

'Zilahy's account is often funny, but always raw and direct: a far cry from the nostalgic soup often poured over the spectre of 1968.' -Philip Oltermann, 'The Independent' 'Not only a great piece of literature but a visual feast as well.' -Julian Evans, 'BBC' 'In these bittersweet pages you will find the fall of the regimes, and the last twenty years of Eastern Europe.' -Enrico Remmert, 'Rolling Stone Magazine' 'Originally a poet, Zilahy writes with clarity and economy.' -Tibor Fischer, 'The Telegraph' 'Zilahy delivers a generational confession...' -'Times Literary Supplement' 'A remarkable and best-selling author... Peter Zilahy has written a book that almost defies description.' -Ian McMillan, 'The Verb', BBC Radio 3 'Zilahy captures the 'Groundhog Day' feeling of the protests in Belgrade... ' -'Time Out' 'It captures what was a near-universal local experience so well, a transition that is monumental and yet oddly anti-climactic... And it's a very good-looking book, too.' - 'The Complete Review'