The End Of A Family Story

Description

Amidst the darkness and silence of isolation, The End of a Family Story offers a uniquely imaginative impression of life thwarted by a brutal regime. It is 1950s Hungary; a country at the height of Stalinist repression with a populace reduced to silence and deception. An old man flees with his memories of the past in which he believes he can still find redemption, taking with him his grandson, Simon. For him, he invents a fantastic tapestry of stories, a family saga, a fabulous world of myths and legends. His mother dead and his father condemned by the authorities as a traitor, Simon is sent to an institution where the inmates are sentenced to silence. Liberated by his grandfather's stories, Simon gives dark and passionate testimony to the alienation and treason that surrounds him. Finally he begins to understand how other kinds of family stories will end.

Peter Nadas was born in Budapest in 1942. Among his works translated into English are the novels A Book of Memories, The End of a Family Story, Love and his most recent, Parallel Stories; a collection of stories and essays, Fire and Knowledge and two pieces of short fiction, A Lovely Tale of Photography and Peter Nadas- Own Death. He lives with his wife in Gombosszeg, Hungary.

"Like Nadas's highly praised A Book of Memories, this is a moving, always unusual novel...it lifts the reader into the sort of deeply imagined personal experience that can only be achieved by good fiction" Observer "A hypnotically beautiful novel" Daily Telegraph "Peter Nadas is unique in that he both fictionalises the storytelling impulse and explores its origins in the consciousness of a child... A magnificent novel... A genuine work of art" The Times