Meet the author: László Krasznahorkai at Passa Porta
Categories: Literature
Date: 31/10/2019
Time: 20 h 00 - 21 h 30
Location: Passa Porta
Links: iCal - Google Calendar
Passa Porta organizes an interview with the International Booker Prize winner László Krasznahorkai.
October 31, at 20 h, László Krasznahorkai will be interviewed by Marnix Verplancke, literary critic at De Morgen and Knack. Actor Koen De Sutter will bring a reading from the novel Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming.
The novel
The last Krasznahorkai’s novel is a dystopian vortex: a rumor is going around a small Hungarian town that Béla Wenckheim, a rich aristocrat, is returning from Argentina. More and more people are counting on him to bring back a ton of money and help the city flourish again. What follows, however, far exceeds expectations …
Baron Wenckheim is indeed returning. But when he unexpectedly dies after a series of tragicomic misunderstandings, the disillusioned population revolts. A huge fire breaks out in the city. The only survivor is an idiot who has escaped from the asylum and sings on top of the water tower. With one powerfully visual scene after another, Krasznahorkai guides us through his story with as much irony as ever, but this time with a humour that is a lot more overt. The downfall draws you in with a grin.
The author
László Krasznahorkai was born in 1954 in Gyula, a small town in Hungary, then a satellite state of the Soviet Union. He studied law and Hungarian literature. Krasznahorkai published his first novel, Satantango, in 1985. This was followed by The Melancholy of Resistance(1989) and War and War (1999), and now Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming (2016). In addition to novels, Krasznahorkai has published several novels, essays and travel stories. His work has been translated, rewarded and filmed many times, including by Béla Tarr. Although he retains a house in Hungary, Krasznahorkai has lived in voluntary exile in Berlin for quite some time.
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