Péter Nádas (born 14 October 1942) is a Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist.
Biography
He was born in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
into a Jewish family, the son of László Nádas (originally Nussbaum) and Klára Tauber. After the takeover of the
Hungarian Nazis, the
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National ...
on 15 October 1944, Klára Tauber escaped with her son to
Bačka
Bačka ( sr-cyrl, Бачка, ) or Bácska () is a geographical and historical area within the Pannonian Plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east. It is divided between Serbia and Hungary ...
and
Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...
, but returned to the capital directly before the
Siege of Budapest
The Siege of Budapest or Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet Union, Soviet and Kingdom of Romania, Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital (political), capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the b ...
. Péter Nádas survived the siege together with his mother in the flat of his uncle, the journalist Pál Aranyossi.
Even though his parents were illegal
Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and involved with the Communist administration later on, as well, they had both their sons—Péter and Pál—baptized in the Reformed
(Calvinist) Church of Pozsonyi Street. His mother died of an illness when he was 13. In 1958, his father—head of department in one of the ministries, slandered with accusations of embezzlement, then exonerated by the court of all charges—committed suicide; Péter Nádas became an orphan at 16. Magda Aranyossi became the
guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
of the two children.
Between 1961 and 1963 Péter Nádas studied journalism and photography. He worked as a journalist at a Budapest magazine (
Pest Megyei Hírlap) from 1965 to 1969. He also worked as a playwright and a photographer. Since 1969 he has been a freelancer.
In 1990 he married Magda Salamon (with whom he had been living since 1962). In 1984 they moved to a small village in western Hungary,
Gombosszeg, where they have resided ever since, though he also has a residence in the Castle District of
Buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
.
In 1993, he was elected member of the
Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts The Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts ( hu, Széchenyi Irodalmi és Művészeti Akadémia) was created in 1992 as an academy associated yet independent from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is intended to be the national academy of arti ...
.
Since the early 1970s, he has frequently spent time in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Germany, attending lectures at
Humboldt University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of ...
or reading in the
Staatsbibliothek
This is a list of the state libraries (german: Landesbibliothek) for each of the Länder of the Federal Republic of Germany. These libraries hold the right for legal deposit for the publications in their respective state.
Landesbibliothek
S ...
. He has been a fellow of the
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (german: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled ...
, Institute for Advanced Study. In 2006, he was elected a member of the
Akademie der Künste
The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany.
The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...
, Berlin. He enjoys a high reputation in Germany.
Works
After publishing volumes of short stories, he published his first novel ''The End of a Family Story'' in 1977.
He published his second novel, ''
A Book of Memories
''A Book of Memories'' ( hu, Emlékiratok könyve) is a 1986 novel by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas. The narrative follows a Hungarian novelist involved in a romantic triangle in East Berlin; interwoven with the main story are sections of a n ...
'' in 1986. It took Nádas twelve years to write this book. The epigraph of this novel is from the
Gospel according to John
The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...
: "But he spoke of the temple of his body" (John, 2.21). In this novel, Nádas describes the world as a system of relations linking human bodies to each other. This book earned Nádas comparisons to
Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
.
He published his latest novel, the three-volume ''
Parallel Stories'' (I: ''The Mute Realm'', II: ''In the Very Depth of the Night'', III: ''The Breath of Freedom'') in 2005. This novel is a multitude of independent stories that melt into one single narrative. It took Nádas eighteen years to complete this book. The novel has been described as "a virtuoso combination of nineteenth-century high realism with the experimentalism of the
nouveau roman", while "the real narrative is that of bodies' actions on one another, their attraction and desires, their mutual memories" (Gábor Csordás). The plot is constructed around the histories of two families: one—the Lippay-Lehrs, who are Hungarian, the other—the Döhrings, who are German. These two main threads link irregularly up to one another via specific events or figures.
Nádas' other novels include ''Lovely Tale of Photography'', ''Yearbook'', ''On Heavenly and Earthly Love'', and ''A Dialogue with Richard Swartz''. Death is a recurrent theme in Nádas' work, particularly in ''Own Death'', based on his experience of
clinical death
Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a conditio ...
.
His writing has been described as intellectual, detailed, strong, innovative, and demanding. He is the winner of the Würth-Preis für Europäische Literatur in 2014.
A volume of interviews with Péter Nádas, by Zsófia Mihancsik (''Nincs mennyezet, nincs födém'') was published in 2006.
Bibliography
Works translated into English:
*''
Parallel Stories: A Novel'' ()
*''
A Lovely Tale of Photography'' ()
*''
The End of a Family Story
''The End of a Family Story'' ( hu, Egy családregény vége) is a 1977 novel by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas. The narrative follows a boy who grows up in Hungary in the 1950s, and whose grandfather tells him stories about their family's pas ...
'' ()
*''
A Book of Memories
''A Book of Memories'' ( hu, Emlékiratok könyve) is a 1986 novel by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas. The narrative follows a Hungarian novelist involved in a romantic triangle in East Berlin; interwoven with the main story are sections of a n ...
'' () ()(New York) () () () ()(London)
*"A Tale About Fire and Knowledge" in the anthology ''Caught in a Story''
*''
Love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
'' ()
*''
Own Death'' ()
*''Fire and Knowledge: Fiction and Essays'' ()
Awards
He has received numerous awards, including
* 1989 Prize for Hungarian Art, Hungary.
* 1991
Austrian State Prize for European Literature The Austrian State Prize for European Literature (german: Österreichischer Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur), also known in Austria as the European Literary Award (''Europäischer Literaturpreis''), is an Austria
Austria, , bar, Ö ...
, Austria.
* 1992
Kossuth Prize
The Kossuth Prize ( hu, Kossuth-díj) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 (on occasion of the centenary of the March 15th revolution, the ...
, Hungary.
* 1995
Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding
The City of Leipzig awards the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding () which has been given since 1994. The award is endowed with prize money of 20,000 Euro and is presented every year during the official opening of Leipzig Book Fair.
Rec ...
, Germany.
* 1998
Vilenica International Prize for Literature, Slovenia.
* 1998
Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger The Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize) is a French literary prize created in 1948. It is awarded yearly in two categories: Novel and Essay for books translated into French.
Prix du Meilleur livre étranger — Novel
*2020: ...
(Prize for the Best Foreign Book), France.
* 2003
Franz Kafka Prize
The Franz Kafka Prize is an international literary award presented in honour of Franz Kafka, the Jewish, Bohemian, German-language novelist. The prize was first awarded in 2001 and is co-sponsored by the Franz Kafka Society and the city of Prag ...
, Czech Republic.
* 2014
Würth-Preis für Europäische Literatur
Würth-Preis für Europäische Literatur is a biennial German literary award given to an author. The prize is €25,000 and is open to any European authors. It is one of a series of awards given by the Würth Foundation (Stiftung Würth) in Kü ...
, Germany.
He has also been nominated for the Nobel Prize.
References
External links
Gábor Csordás: The body of the text. Corporeal writing in Péter Nádas's "Parallel Stories"Ottilie Mulzet: A la recherche de corps perdus: Notes from a reading of Péter Nádas's A néma tartomány (The Mute Realm)Multilingual Literature Database of the Hungarian Book FoundationPéter Nádas: BurialSusan Sontag: Nádas's Comedy of Interment*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nadas, Peter
1942 births
Living people
Writers from Budapest
Hungarian Jews
Hungarian Protestants
Hungarian Calvinist and Reformed Christians
Postmodern writers
Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
Members of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts