Author(s): Krisztina Toth; Peter Sherwood (Translator)

Short Stories | Small Press | 2024 Republic of Consciousness Prize long list | Translated fiction | Hungary

Tóth's collection is an excellent and accessible new addition to the growing number of Hungarian texts translated into English. - LA Review of Books

Krisztina Tóth's first substantial work in prose after four volumes of remarkable verse, consists of fifteen beautifully written and highly sensual short stories. Most are narrated with poetic intensity and intimacy from a young, unnamed female narrator's point of view. Whether about childhood acquaintances, school camps and trips, or love and deceit in love, they are all are set against the backdrop of Hungary's socialist era in its declining years. The stories are carefully strung, like jewels in a necklace, along metaphorical 'lines', as in the title of the collection and the subtitle of the pieces. The losses, disappointments, and tragedies great and small recounted here offer nuanced 'mirrorings' of the female soul and linger long in the memory.