Six Essential Works by Krasznahorkai Translated into Spanish

László Krasznahorkai is not, evidently, among the most widely read international authors in Spain, but a significant portion of his work has been translated into Spanish, mainly due to the interest of the independent company Acantilado, which since 2001 has been publishing some of the most renowned titles by the Hungarian author, who received the Formentor Prize in 2024.

Among them are six long novels, all translated into Spanish by Adan Kovacsics and part of the Barcelona-based publisher's catalogue.

Inspiration for the six-hour masterpiece by filmmaker Béla Tarr, the story unfolds over a couple of days of endless rain and focuses on a dozen inhabitants of a nameless isolated village, trapped in the middle of nowhere. Crimes, infidelities, hopes of escape, and above all, trust and its constant betrayal are the novel's core.

A surreal novel about the arrival of a circus to a small Hungarian town. A circus promising to display the stuffed body of the world's largest whale arrives in the dead of winter, sparking strange rumours. Word spreads that the circus folk have sinister intentions, and the terrified citizens cling to any manifestation of order they can find: music, cosmology, or fascism.

'War and War' portrays a world divided between cruelty and mysterious beauty. Korim has discovered in the archives of a small Hungarian town an ancient manuscript of astonishing beauty: it tells the epic story of comrades-in-arms struggling to return home after a disastrous war. Korim is determined to commit suicide, but before doing so, he feels the need to escape to New York with the precious manuscript and preserve it for eternity by writing it all on the internet.

The most serene and poetic work of the Nobel laureate, it describes the search for the unattainable and the riches discovered along the way. The grandson of Prince Genji lives outside space and time and wanders the grounds of an ancient monastery in Kyoto. The monastery, too, is timeless: a place of prayer and liberation, with barely a trace of human presence, and a starting point for this traveller who eagerly seeks a garden, in a meditation on nature, life, history, and being.

Melancholic and brilliant, it urges one to appreciate the concentration that perceiving great art entails. The Hungarian author presents an ancient Buddha in the process of restoration; Perugino directing his workshop; a Japanese Noh actor rehearsing; a Baroque music enthusiast giving a lecture to a handful of elderly villagers; tourists invading the rituals of Japan's most sacred shrine; a heron hunting...

It narrates the story of Baron Bela Wenckheim, who decides to return to his hometown at the end of his life. After escaping his numerous casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he lived in exile, he wishes to reunite with his high school sweetheart, Marika. What follows is an endless storm of gossip, swindlers, and local politicians, evoking the sometimes monotonous and absurd existence of a small Hungarian town.