The first comprehensive volume in English from one of Hungaryasquo;s most popular twentieth-century writers.
Iván Mándy (1918adash;1995) has been called odquo;the prose poet of Budapest,idquo; and this volume of short stories presents the first comprehensive collection of his work in English. His early oeuvre created an urban mythology full of picaresque characters inhabiting the seedier neighborhoods of the city: its flea-market stalls, second-run cinemas, and old-fashioned coffeehouses. The stories from the later decades of Mándyasquo;s life, often bordering on the absurd, introduce many autobiographical elements spun around the authorssquo;s alter-ego, János Zsámboky, whose hapless adventures on a rare trip abroad constitute this group of stories, including tdquo;Postcard from London. dquo; Mándyesquo;s unique style at times borrows techniques from films and radio plays, his quirky cuts creating a flicker of images seen in the mindlsquo;s eye. Memory and perception, time and place spin in narrative legerdemain that invites and rewards the readernsquo;s active participation.
