Szávai Géza honlapja

Géza SZÁVAI was born in 1950 in Szeklerland. (Szeklerland is a specific, autonomous part of Transylvania, the historical and cultural cradle of several ethnicities—Romanians, Germans, etc.—that is now found in Romania.) After completing university, he taught for a short period of time, then worked as a journalist and editor. Since 1998 he has been living in Budapest. In 1994 he founded PONT Publishers, a publishing company for books and periodicals in several languages. Szávai then established the international program CONFLUX (the opposite of conflict!) together with his friends located in Europe and overseas. His works include prose and essays. His most well-known book, the Szekler Jerusalem is an exciting “essay-novel” that depicts the tragic story of the Hungarian Sabbatarians—i.e., “spiritual Jews”—through historical documents, reflections, memoirs and personal confessions.

Variety and experiment characterize his work as a novelist. His essayistic novel on identity, Szekler Jerusalem, relays the shocking yet fascinating story of a community of Szeklers who converted to Judaism. The Past Millenium in Marienbad, a novel described as “monumental” by critics, discusses the personal and collective crises experienced in post-communist Hungary. His novel entitled Aletta’s Ark takes place in 17th century Japan and describes the massacre of Christians that occurred at this time.

Thoroughly enthralled by diversity’s possibilities, Géza Szávai professes that each of his novels comprises a different genre. He believes a few pages can sufficiently convey the depth of an entire novel. In his series, Great Novels and Smaller Ones, he experiments with this unique technique to writing novels. The first volume in this series, Tracks in the Snow, was published in 2008. In an interview about his latest work, Carrying You to Lands of Wonder (2013), Géza Szávai stated that, “It’s fashionable these days to refer to the phrase, ’world music.’ In my opinion, world novels are emerging from the same kinds of depths.” This work also brings world novels to the surface. As far as the author’s interpretation of “wonder” is concerned, he says the following: “There’s naturally a good deal of self-irony and a shade of bitterness in my usage of this word—but I still use it with passionate seriousness...”

Tibor Déry Prize, 2001

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