Parallel Stories
Encyclopedia
Parallel Stories is a 2005 novel in three volumes by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas
. It comprises the installments The Silent Province (A néma tartomány), In the Depths of the Night (Az éjszaka legmélyén), and A Breath of Freedom (A szabadság lélegzete). The narrative portrays Hungary during the 20th century. The novel took 18 years to write. It was published in English as one volume in 2011.
wrote: "like many 18-year-olds, this novel has a tendency to take itself too seriously. Its insistent structural repetition can feel indulgent and, with its large cast of navel-gazing characters, its preferred mode of 'amplified inner monologue' intermittently falls prey to longueurs." Marks continued: "That said, it's with remarkable dexterity that Nádas splices together the political, sexual and emotional histories of two families, the Hungarian Lippay Lehrs and the German Döhrings. While theirs may be the parallel stories of the title, this is a boldly experimental novel that stubbornly refuses to follow straight lines."
Péter Nádas
Péter Nádas is a Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist.- Biography :He was born in Budapest as the son of László Nádas and Klára Tauber. After the takeover of the Hungarian Nazis, the Arrow Cross Party on 15 October 1944, Klára Tauber escaped with her son to Bačka and Novi Sad, but returned...
. It comprises the installments The Silent Province (A néma tartomány), In the Depths of the Night (Az éjszaka legmélyén), and A Breath of Freedom (A szabadság lélegzete). The narrative portrays Hungary during the 20th century. The novel took 18 years to write. It was published in English as one volume in 2011.
Reception
Thomas Marks of The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
wrote: "like many 18-year-olds, this novel has a tendency to take itself too seriously. Its insistent structural repetition can feel indulgent and, with its large cast of navel-gazing characters, its preferred mode of 'amplified inner monologue' intermittently falls prey to longueurs." Marks continued: "That said, it's with remarkable dexterity that Nádas splices together the political, sexual and emotional histories of two families, the Hungarian Lippay Lehrs and the German Döhrings. While theirs may be the parallel stories of the title, this is a boldly experimental novel that stubbornly refuses to follow straight lines."
External links
- Parallel Stories at the publisher's website