The snow of the dying century still lay on the edge of the dark forest when Lajos von Lazar, the translucent child with water-blue eyes, first glimpsed the man he would believe to be his father for his whole life and beyond. LAZAR tells the story of a noble Hungarian family and their decline over several generations, taking us from the beginning of the 20th century through the Nazi and Soviet eras to the Hungarian national uprising in 1956. It is an astonishingly self-confident, clever novel and Nelio Biedermann demonstrates himself to be psychologically sensitive and brilliant storyteller at the age of 21. A fresh voice from a new generation looking at history through a different lens and telling it in a way that feels both modern and timeless. The novel, with its nods to One Hundred Years of Solitude and Buddenbrooks , is a highly impressive work for an author of any age - and promises much more to come. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

Autorentext
Nelio Biedermann, born in 2003, grew up on Lake Zurich. His paternal family is of Hungarian nobility; his grandparents fled to Switzerland in the 1950s. Biedermann studied German and film studies at the University of Zurich. His novel Lázár will be published in more than twenty countries.

Klappentext

"A truly great writer steps onto the stage" Daniel Kehlmann

The snow of the dying century still lay on the edge of the dark forest when Lajos von Lázár, the translucent child with water-blue eyes, first glimpsed the man he would believe to be his father for his whole life and beyond.

Lajos von Lázár is brought into this world with the dawn of the new century, and his birth is both a miracle and a curse, his true patrimony a secret he will never know. The Lázárs have ruled their Hungarian lands for generations. In their ancient castle by the edge of a dark forest that compels all who enter it to madness, they succumb to every vice and live only to satiate their desires. But the old order is crumbling, and the days of the Hapsburg Monarchy are numbered.

When Lajos inherits, they at last have a baron who can reignite the old splendours, but not even his abilities are proof against the ravages of war and occupation. It will fall to his children - a boy who talks to shadows and a girl who eschews her blue blood - to find a way to stand against oppression and take the first faltering steps towards freedom.

A sweeping historical epic, taking the reader from the twilight of the 1900s to the Hungarian National Uprising in 1956, Lázár would be a phenomenal achievement for an author of any age. But given it was written when the author was just 21, with its air of timeless wisdom and striking images on ever page, reading like a rediscovered classic, it may come to be seen as one of the most remarkable novels of the 21st century so far.

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch