© Gaspar Stekovics
Born in 1946 in Budapest, award-winning dramatist, novelist, and translator György Spiró has earned a reputation as one of postwar Hungary’s most prominent and prolific literary figures. He teaches at ELTE University of Budapest, where he specializes in Slavic literatures.
Named one of The Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of 2015
Winner of the Aegon Literary Award
“Captivity is a complex and fast-paced tale of Jewish life in the early first century, a sort of sword-and-sandals saga as reimagined by Henry Roth. The narrative follows Uri from Rome to Jerusalem and back, from prospectless dreamer to political operative to pogrom survivor—who along the way also happens to dine with Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate and get thrown into a cell with a certain Galilean rabble-rouser. Hungarian György Spiró’s deft combination of philosophical inquiry and page-turning brio should overcome that oft-mentioned American timidity toward books in translation.”
—The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of 2015
Paperback ISBN: 9781632061416
Hardcover ISBN: 9781632060495
Publication date: Nov 3, 2015
To mark the occasion of Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian author Imre Kertész's eighty-fifth birthday this November 9, we asked his longtime friend and colleague, Captivity author György Spiró, to reflect on the impact of Kertész's masterwork Fatelessness and their friendship.
Edited by Ilan Stavans
In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. A portion of proceeds benefit booksellers in need.
World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translation of 2020
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632063021
Publication date: Aug 25, 2020