György Spiró - Captivity

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Captivity: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

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The epic bestseller and winner of the prestigious Aegon Literary Award in Hungary, Captivity is an enthralling and illuminating historical saga set in the time of Jesus about a Roman Jew on a quest to the Holy Land.
A literary sensation in Hungary, György Spiró’s Captivity is both a highly sophisticated historical novel and a gripping page-turner. Set in the tumultuous first century A.D., between the year of Christ’s death and the outbreak of the Jewish War, Captivity recounts the adventures of the feeble-bodied, bookish Uri, a young Roman Jew.
Frustrated with his hapless son, Uri’s father sends the young man to the Holy Land to regain the family’s prestige. In Jerusalem, Uri is imprisoned by Herod and meets two thieves and (perhaps) Jesus before their crucifixion. Later, in cosmopolitan Alexandria, he undergoes a scholarly and sexual awakening — but must also escape a pogrom. Returning to Rome at last, he finds an entirely unexpected inheritance.
Equal parts Homeric epic, brilliantly researched Jewish history, and picaresque adventure, Captivity is a dramatic tale of family, fate, and fortitude. In its weak-yet-valiant hero, fans will be reminded of Robert Graves’ classics of Ancient Rome, I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
"With the novel Captivity, Spiró proved that he is well-versed in both historical and human knowledge. It appears that in our times, it is playfulness that is expected of literary works, rather than the portrayal of realistic questions and conflicts. As if the two, playfulness and seriousness were inconsistent with each other! On the contrary (at least for me) playfulness begins with seriousness. Literature is a serious game. So is Spiró’s novel.?"
— Imre Kertész, Nobel Prize — winning author of Fatelessness
"Like the authors of so many great novels, György Spiró sends his hero, Uri, out into the wide world. Uri is a Roman Jew born into a poor family, and the wide world is an overripe civilization — the Roman Empire. Captivity can be read as an adventure novel, a Bildungsroman, a richly detailed portrait of an era, and a historico-philosophical parable. The long series of adventures — in which it is only a tiny episode that Uri is imprisoned together with Jesus and the two thieves — at once suggest the vanity of human endeavors and a passion for life. A masterpiece."
— László Márton
“[Captivity is] an important work by yet another representative of Hungarian letters who has all the chances to become a household name among the readers of literature in translation, just like Nadas, Esterhazy and Krasznahorkai.… Meticulously researched.… The novel has been a tremendous success in Hungary, having gone through more than a dozen editions. The critics lauded its page-turning quality along with the wealth of ideas and the ambitious recreation of historical detail.”
— The Untranslated
“A novel of education and a novel of adventure that brings to life ancient Rome, Alexandria and Jerusalem with a vividness of detail that is stunning. Spiró’s prose is crisp and colloquial, the kind of prose that aims for precision rather than literary thrills. A serious and sophisticated novel that is also engrossing and highly readable is a rare thing. Captivity is such a novel.”
— Ivan Sanders, Columbia University
“György Spiró aspired at nothing less than (…) present a theory in novelistic form about the interweavedness of religion and politics, lay bare the inner workings of power and give an insight into the art of survival….This book is an incredible page turner, it reads easily and avidly like the greatest bestsellers while also going as deep as the greatest thinkers of European philosophy.”
— Aegon Literary Award 2006 jury recommendation
“What this sensational novel outlines is the demonic nature of History. Ethically as well as historically, this an especially grand-scale parable. Captivity gets its feet under any literary table you care to mention."
— István Margócsy, Élet és Irodalom
“This book is a major landmark for the year.”
— Pál Závada, Népszabadság
“It would not be surprising if literary historians were soon calling him the re-assessor and regenerator of the post-modern novel.”
— Gergely Mézes, Magyar Hírlap
“Impossibly engrossing from the very first page….Building on a huge volume of reference material, the novel rings true from both a historical and a literary point of view.”
— Magda Ferch, Magyar Nemzet

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Uri provided his father some superb bits of advice, and Joseph was increasingly proud of his son. They jointly went into a machine-making business in which Uri designed lifting devices and even learned how to cast statues, which they shipped to all the ports. One time they traveled to Syracusa for discussions and to meet Matthew, who was working as harbor master. He had not aged one bit and immediately ordered three lifting machines. Uri reminded him that he had given to Plotius what he owed, and Matthew said that Plotius had indeed passed it on.

When Hermia brought him his meal, Uri ordered barbel, but she moaned that it was horrendously expensive, whereupon Uri tipped her off that he had money, only he had hidden it. That greatly intrigued Hermia, but Uri would not reveal where the money was hidden.

He complained about the food, shouting at the women who brought him meals, after which they did not bring any more. Good thing I’m used to starving, the thought entered Uri’s mind. It stank in the room; Uri defecated besides the chamber-pot, smearing it on the floor, and he laughed when he found there was no water in the pitcher.

Joseph sat beside Uri’s bed and told him stories. He knew some fabulous tales, and Uri listened spellbound.

“Tell them to Theo as well,” he asked his father.

“Who’s Theo?”

Uri deliberated.

“I’ll be him when I grow up.”

Joseph promised.

At dawn one day, Uri woke up feeling like he was choking. Joseph was not to be found anywhere. Uri coughed but it did not relieve the pressure in his chest. He called out, but no one came. His stomach hurt, his chest was painful, the nape of his neck was racked with stabbing pains. He was gasping for air, his arms flailed and his legs churned but he could only choke, his muscles would not function, they just burned. Uri’s struggled mightily.

I still want to live, he thought to himself, and was lost in wonder.

About the Author

and Translator

Born in 1946 in Budapest, award-winning dramatist, novelist, and translator GYÖRGY SPIRÓ has earned a reputation as one of postwar Hungary’s most prominent and prolific literary figures. He teaches at ELTE University of Budapest, where he specializes in Slavic literatures.

TIM WILKINSON gave up his job in the pharmaceutical industry to translate Hungarian literature and history. He is the primary translator of Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertész. Wilkinson’s translation of Kertész’s Fatelessness won the PEN/Book of the Month Club Translation Prize in 2005.

Copyright © 2015 György Spiró

Translation copyright © 2010 by Tim Wilkinson

Digital edition published by Restless Books, 2015

This edition published by Restless Books, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-63206-049-5

eISBN: 978-1-63206-021-1

Translation of The Book of Enoch used here follows the text in

From the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament by R.H. Charles

(Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1913)

Cover design by Rodrigo Corral

Endpaper artwork by Mauricio Diaz

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Ellison, Stavans, and Hochstein LP

232 3rd Street, Suite A111

Brooklyn, NY 11215

www.restlessbooks.com

publisher@restlessbooks.com

This translation was made possible with the support of Gabor and Zsuzsa Bojar.

Text design, typesetting and eBook by Tetragon, London, UK

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