''Chasing Homer'' ( hu, Mindig Homérosznak) is a 2019 novella by the Hungarian writer

László Krasznahorkai László Krasznahorkai (; born 5 January 1954) is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter known for difficult and demanding novels, often labeled postmodern, with dystopian and melancholic themes. Several of his works, including his novels '' ...

. It is about an unnamed man on the run from mysterious pursuers along the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...

coast. The book was published with original illustrations by and a music score by Miklos Szilveszter.

Plot

The story is told by an unnamed man who says that neither past nor future exist, only the present. The only detail revealed about his past is that he has studied " Old High German and Ancient Persian and Latin and Hebrew" as well as "Mandarin and Japanese of the Heian era". He is on the run from men who want to kill him, but the identities and motives of the pursuers are never explained. The man describes his survival techniques and episodes where he nearly was caught, but got away by hiding or moving in an unexpected direction. Along with the chase stories are musings on subjects such as experiments on mice, mathematics and crowd manipulation. The man's travels along the

coast takes him to a guided tourist trip on the island of Mljet in Croatia, which according to local legend is the island of Calypso in Homer's '' Odyssey''.

Publication

Magvető published ''Chasing Homer'' in Hungarian as ''Mindig Homérosznak'' on 8 October 2019. Each of the 19 chapters comes with an original illustration by and a track from a percussion-based soundtrack composed by Miklos Szilveszter, accessible through a QR code at the chapter's start. The book was translated to English by

John Batki John Batki is an American short story writer, poet, and translator. Life Batki was born in Hungary in 1942, and has been living in the United States since 1957. He has taught at Harvard University. Batki's work has appeared in ''The New Yorker ...

and published by New Directions Publishing on 2 November 2021.

Reception

Ágnes Bonivárt of ' said ''Chasing Homer'' showcases Krasznahorkai's ability to make things appear easy before becoming complicated a few sentences later. She described the story as a framework that receives more intensity from Neumann's pictures and Szilveszter's music. References to Homer add another layer and function as "more of a collapsed pillar than a support". In '' World Literature Today'', Elaine Margolin called the book entrancing, described Neumann's paintings as melancholic and hard to decipher, and said the music adds to the text's "apocalyptic tension". She wrote that the one reference to old languages may represent "the faintest drops of some sort of latent elitism for an earlier time". '' Publishers Weekly'' described the book as a cross between a Jean-Claude Van Damme film and the works of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

and Franz Kafka, writing that the English translation "exquisitely captures the grace underlying the hero's frenetic mindset". ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' called the book "a postmodern study of alienation and exile" and "a brilliant work that proves the adage that even paranoiacs have enemies".

References

External links

Hungarian publisher's website

American publisher's website
{{László Krasznahorkai 2019 novels 2010s novellas Homer Hungarian novellas Magvető books Novels set in Croatia Works by László Krasznahorkai