Pál Závada: A writer, sociologist and an author of novels about a pillow and mist
– Hungary
Born in 1954, Pál Závada is an author, sociologist and a laureate of the Kossuth Award. He is an ordinary intellectual elevated to the stardom of the Hungarian literary scene by Jadviga párnája (Jadviga’s Pillow, 1997), a bestselling novel written in the style of a journal. The story of the fall a mysterious clan alliance was partially written in the Békés dialect of Slovak, which turned it into an exquisite language speciality – and a hard nut to crack for translators. The two sequels of the novel – Milota (2002) and A fényképész utókora (The Photographer’s Legacy, 2004) –form a trilogy. Pal Závada’s novel Egy piaci nap (A Day at a Market, 2016) is based on real events surrounding anti-Jewish pogroms in Kunmadarasi. His latest novel Hajó a ködben (A Ship in the Mist, 2019) tells a true story of Manfred Weiss, an heir to a steelmaking empire, and takes place in the spring of 1944 when Hungary begins deporting the Jews.