Géza Szávai

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Szávai Géza

Géza SZÁVAI was born in 1950 in Szeklerland. (Szeklerland is inhabited by Hungarians and is a specific, autonomous part of Transylvania, cradle of the history and culture of several nations – Romanians, Germans etc. –, now belonging to Romania.) Having taken a university degree, he taught for a short period of time, then worked as a journalist and editor. He has been living in Budapest from 1988. In 1994 he founded the PONT Publishing House, which publishes books (and periodicals) in several languages. He started an international program called CONFLUX (the opposite of conflict) together with his friends living in Europe and overseas. He writes prose and essays. His most known book, the Szekler Jerusalem is an exciting “essay-novel” containing historical documents, reflections, memoires and personal confessions, presenting the tragic story of Hungarian Sabbatarians or “spirilual Jews”.

Works

Novels

• Walking With the Music of a Gramophone (Séta gramofonzenére, first edition: 1985; edited also in German, Roumanian and Russian, in preparation in Polish, Spanish and Czech);
• The Ball is Breaking Up (Oszlik a bál, written in 1986; first edition: 1990; edited also in Romanian; in preparation in German and Russian);
• Arriere-gard (Utóvéd, first edition: 1987; in preparation in English);
• Who Saw Us Naked? (Ki látott minket meztelenül?, (first edition: 1998; in preparation in French);
• Szekler Jerusalem (Székely Jeruzsálem, first edition: 2000, fourth Hungarian edition: 2011, edited also in French and Roumanian)
• Aletta’s Ark (Aletta bárkája , first edition: 2006),
• Last Millennium in Marienbad (Múlt évezred Marienbadban, first edition: 2009),
• Somebody pass into snow – Great Novels and Novelettes (Valaki átment a havon – Kisregények és nagyregények; first edition: 2008)
• Brought You in Wonderful Countries (Csodálatos országokba hoztalak, first edition: 2013)

Collections of short stories

• Progéria (1982);
• Playing Execution (Kivégzősdi, 1994)

Major collections of essays

• Helyzettudat és irodalom, Awareness of State and Literature (first edition: 1980);
• Lánc, lánc, Eszterlánc – Vázlat a gyermek világáról, – Outline of the Child’s World (first edition: 1983), second, enlarged edition in three volumes: A hazugság forradalma – A kisgyermek és a valóság, Revolution of Lies – The Child and Reality (Lánc, lánc, Eszterlánc I., 1997); Kétszemélyes költészet – A nyelv és a vers születése, Twohanded Poetry – The Birht of Language and Poetry (Lánc, lánc, Eszterlánc II., 1998); third volume in preparation: Láss csodát – A rajzoló kisgyermek lélektana, The Psychology of the Drawing Child.

Collections of tales

• A Zöld Sivatag vőlegénye, The Groom of the Green Desert (first edition: 1981; second, revised edition: 1994);
• Géza Szávai is writing a seven-volume series of detective stories for children: Burgum Bélus, a mesterdetektív, Burgum Bélus, the Superdetective. Four volumes have been edited up to now. (1. Burgum Bélus, a mesterdetektív, Burgum Bélus, the Superdetective; 2. Égi elefántok, avagy B.B. nyomozásai a világűrben, Elephants in the Sky or B.B’s Investigations in Space; 3. A rettenthetetlen vizimedve, avagy B.B. nyomozásai az óceánban; The Fearless Water Bear or B.B’s Investigations in the Ocean; 4. Burgum Bélus az Ezeregyéjben, Burgum Bélus in the 1001 Nights) Editions in foreign languages of the Burgum Bélus series are also in progress.