by Krasznahorkai, Laszlo | Fiction & related items Published 05/11/2020 by Profile Books Ltd (Tuskar Rock) in the United Kingdom Paperback | 304 pages129 x 198 x 27mm | 238gWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 2025In the darkening embers of a Communist utopia, life in a desolate Hungarian town has come to a virtual standstill. Flies buzz, spiders weave, water drips and animals root desultorily in the barnyard of a collective farm. But when the charismatic Irimias - long-thought dead - returns, the villagers fall under his spell. Irimias sets about swindling the villagers out of a fortune that might allow them to escape the emptiness and futility of their existence. He soon attains a messianic aura as he plays on the fears of the townsfolk and a series of increasingly brutal events unfold.Translated by George Szirtes and Ottilie Mulzet