Gyula Krudy is a marvelous writer who haunted the taverns of Budapest and lived on its streets while turning out a series of mesmerizing, revelatory novels that are among the masterpieces of modern literature. Krudy conjures up a world that is entirely his own — dreamy, macabre, comic, and erotic — where urbane sophistication can erupt without warning into passion and madness.
In Sunflower young Eveline leaves the city and returns to her country estate to escape the memory of her desperate love for the unscrupulous charmer Kalman. There she encounters the melancholy Almos-Dreamer, who is languishing for love of her, and is visited by the bizarre and beautiful Miss Maszkeradi, a woman who is a force of nature. The plot twists and turns, elemental myth mingles with sheer farce: Krudy brilliantly illuminates the shifting contours and acid colors of the landscape of desire.
John Batki’s outstanding translation of Sunflower is the perfect introduction to the world of Gyula Krudy, a genius as singular as Robert Walser, Bruno Schulz, or Joseph Roth.
