Gyorgy Dragoman - The White King

— Gy. D.

***

Bringing A fehér király into English was immensely satisfying not only because it is as much a riveting story as it is a beautiful one, but also because I was blessed to be translating an author who himself has translated novels from English to Hungarian. Throughout, György Dragomán devoted painstaking attention to my queries, providing invaluable suggestions as he combed through revision after revision with keen insight, sensitivity, and kindness. For a translator this was a rare pleasure, and it was much appreciated.

— P. O.

About the Author

GYÖRGY DRAGOMÁN is thirty-four years old. A Samuel Beckett scholar and film critic, he has also translated works by James Joyce, Ian McEwan, Irvine Welsh, and Micky Donnelly into Hungarian. Awarded Hungary's prestigious Sándor Márai Prize, The White King, though strictly a work of fiction, is loosely based on Dragoman's own experiences growing up in the 1980s in Romania during the rule of Ceausescu. Part of it appeared in the Paris Review. The author lives in Budapest with his wife, a poet, and their two young sons.

About the Translator

PAUL OLCHVÁRY has translated many books from Hungarian, including Károly Pap's novel Azarel (Steerforth), and has received translation awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, and Hungary's Milán Füst Foundation. His shorter translations have appeared in the Hungarian Quarterly and the Paris Review. A native of Amherst, New York, he lives both in Kismaros, Hungary, and various reaches of the American Northeast.