Satantango

by László Krasznahorkai & translated by George Szirtes

Satantango (1985) is the debut novel of Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, and probably his most accessible. The novel is relatively short—fewer than 300 pages—but the sentences (and paragraphs) are long, and it took a decade or so to translate. Set on a decaying collective farm, when it was published in English in 2012, the Guardian called it “brutal, relentless and so amazingly bleak that it’s often quite funny.” It also hailed it as “an obviously brilliant novel.” Satantango was also turned into a 7+ hour movie, directed by Béla Tarr.