Ágota Kristóf (; 30 October 1935 – 27 July 2011) was a Hungarian writer who lived in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and wrote in French. Kristóf received the "European prize" (Prix Europe, a.k.a. Prix Littéraire Europe, Grand Prix Littéraire Européen) from ADELF, the association of Francophone authors, for ''Le Grand Cahier'' (1986; later translated into English as ''The Notebook''). It was followed by two sequels which are collectively The Notebook Trilogy. She won the 2001 Gottfried Keller Award in Switzerland and the

Austrian State Prize for European Literature The Austrian State Prize for European Literature (), also known in Austria as the European Literary Award (''Europäischer Literaturpreis''), is an Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europ ...

in 2008.

Early life

Ágota Kristóf was born in Csikvánd, Hungary on 30 October 1935. Her parents were Kálmán Kristóf, an elementary school teacher and Antónia Turchányi, a professor of arts. At the age of 21 she had to leave her country when the Hungarian anti-communist revolution was suppressed by the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

military. She, her husband (who used to be her history teacher at school) and their 4-month-old daughter escaped to

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...

in Switzerland. After five years of loneliness and exile, she quit her work in a factory and left her husband. She started studying

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and began to write novels in that language.

Career

Kristóf's first steps as a writer were in the realm of poetry and theater (''John et Joe, Un rat qui passe''), aspects of her writing that did not have as great an impact as her prose. In 1986 Kristóf's first novel, ''The Notebook'', appeared. It was the beginning of The Notebook Trilogy. The sequel titled ''The Proof'' came two years later. The third part was published in 1991 under the title ''The Third Lie''. The most important themes of this trilogy are war and destruction, love and loneliness, promiscuousness, desperation, and attention-seeking sexual encounters, desire and loss, and the dichotomies truth and fiction. ''The Notebook'' was translated into more than 40 languages. In 1995 she published a new novel, ''Yesterday''. Kristóf also wrote a book called ''L'analphabète'' (in English ''The Illiterate''), published in 2004. This is an autobiographical text. It explores her love of reading as a young child, and we travel with her to boarding school, over the border to Austria and then to Switzerland. Forced to leave her country due to the failure of the anti-communist rebellion, she hopes for a better life in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. In 2006, two pieces were published together by Editions Zoé, "Où es-tu Mathias?" followed by "Line, le temps". The names Mathias and Line are from her previous novels. The majority of her works were published by Editions du Seuil in Paris. She died on 27 July 2011 in her

home. Her estate is archived in the

Swiss Literary Archives The Swiss Literary Archives (SLA – ''Schweizerische Literaturarchiv'') in Bern collects literary estates in all four national languages of Switzerland (German, French, Italian and Romansh language). It is part of the Swiss National Library op ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Bibliography

Fiction

The Book of Lies Trilogy

Also known as '' The Notebook Trilogy'': #''Le Grand Cahier'' (1986). ''The Notebook'', trans. Alan Sheridan (Grove/Methuen, 1988) # ''La Preuve'' (1988). ''The Proof'', trans. David Watson (Grove/Methuen, 1991) # ''Le Troisième Mensonge'' (1991). ''The Third Lie'', trans. Marc Romano (Grove, 1996)

Novellas

* ''Hier'' (1995). ''Yesterday'', trans. David Watson (Random House of Canada, 1997).

Short story collections

* ''C'est égal'' (2005). ''I Don't Care'', trans. Chris Andrews (New Directions, 2024) - 25 short stories * ''Où es-tu Mathias ?'' (Where are you, Mathias?) (2006) - 2 short stories

Non-Fiction

*''L'Analphabète'' (2004). ''The Illiterate'', trans. Nina Bogin (CB Editions, 2014).

Plays

* ''L'Heure grise, et autres pièces'' (1998) * ''Le Monstre, et autres pièces'' (2007)

Poems

* ''Clous: Poèmes hongrois et français'' (2016). Translations by Maria Maïlat.

English compilations

*''The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels'' (Grove Press, 1997). ''. '' Also published as: **''The Book of Lies'' (Minerva, 1997). **''The Notebook Trilogy'' (Text Publishing, 2016) *''Collected Plays'' (Oberon Books, 2018). . Includes nine plays translated by Bart Smet: ''John and Joe'', ''The Lift Key'', ''A Passing Rat'', ''The Grey Hour or the Last Client'', ''The Monster'', ''The Road'', ''The Epidemic'', ''The Atonement'', and ''Line, of times''

Awards and honors

* 1986: Prix européen de l’ADELF * 1988: Ruban de la Francophonie * 1992: Prix du Livre Inter * 1998: Prix Alberto Moravia * 2001:

Gottfried-Keller-Preis The Gottfried-Keller-Preis, prix Gottfried-Keller, or premio Gottfried Keller is one of the oldest literary awards of Switzerland. The prize was created by Martin Bodmer and is named after the Swiss author Gottfried Keller. It is awarded every two ...

* 2005:

Schiller Prize The Schiller Prize was a Swiss literary award which was established in 1905 to promote Swiss literature and was awarded until 2012 when it was replaced as a national literary award by the Swiss Literature Awards. The prize was awarded by the S ...

for her entire body of work * 2006: Preis der SWR-Bestenliste * 2008:

* 2009: Prix de l'institut neuchâtelois * 2011:

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize (, ) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1936, by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and grou ...

In popular culture

The video game ''

Mother 3 is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third and final entry in the Mother (video game series), ''Mother'' series. The game follows Lucas, a ...

'' (2006) was influenced by ''The Notebooks major themes. Main characters Lucas and Claus are named after the book's narrators. The game's designer,

Shigesato Itoi is a Japanese copywriter, essayist, lyricist, game designer, and actor. Itoi is the editor-in-chief of his website and company '' Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun'' ("Almost Daily Itoi Newspaper"). He is best known outside Japan for his work on Nintendo ...

, a published author in his own right, compared the novel favorably to an

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

. American novelist Stephen Beachy has named Kristóf as an influence on his novel ''boneyard''. '' Burning in the Wind'' (2002) is a film based on the novel ''Hier'' (''Yesterday''), directed by

Silvio Soldini Silvio Soldini (born 1958, in Milan) is an Italian film director. Soldini has received 17 awards in his career and 32 nominations as of November 2015. His 2007 film '' Days and Clouds'' was selected for the main competition on the 30th Moscow I ...

. ''Le Continent K.'' (1998) and ''Agota Kristof, 9 ans plus tard ... '' (2006) are two short documentaries about Ágota Kristóf directed by Eric Bergkraut. ''The Notebook'' was adapted into a film in 2013 by director János Szász. In 2014, the novel was adapted for the stage by British contemporary theatre company, Forced Entertainment.

References

Short bio
at pwf.cz *

at culturactif.ch

External links

Kristóf: Collected Plays
Oberon Books. 2017. * at europeanliteraryimmigration.com
Literary estate of Ágota Kristóf
in the archive database HelveticArchives of the

Swiss National Library The Swiss National Library (, , , ) is the national library of Switzerland. Part of the Federal Office of Culture, it is charged with collecting, cataloging and conserving information in all fields, disciplines, and media connected with Switzerla ...

Publications by and about Ágota Kristóf
in the catalogue Helveticat of the

Interview in June 1999

Interview on 13 October 2006
at www.hlo.hu