“Parallel Stories” is a three-volume novel featuring a collection of interconnected stories about the Hungarian Lippay-Lehr family and the German Döhring family. The novel chronicles 20th century Hungarian history, spanning from the First World War to the collapse of Communism in 1989. The three volumes are “The Silent Province”, “In the Depths of the Night”, and “A Breath of Freedom”.

“The Finno-Ugrian Vampire” is dark comedy about a young vampire in Budapest, pressed by her grandmother to embrace her vampire nature but who dreams of becoming a writer of children’s stories.

Andor is a writer who lives with his domineering mother in a small flat in Budapest. His father and sister have fled to the West, and the Communist government of Hungary is punishing him and his mother as a result. The novel “Tranquility” tells the story of Andor’s struggle to escape his mother’s control and how he falls in love with a Romanian woman who helps him finish his book, while in the background, the Communist regime in Hungary is beginning to collapse.

In “Celestial Harmonies”, Péter Esterházy chronicles the history of his aristocratic family, from their glory days under the Habsburg Empire to their decline with the rise of Communism. The first part of the book is a collection of anecdotes and family legends spanning a thousand years of Esterházy history (for many centuries, the Counts of Esterházy were among the richest and highest-ranking noble families in Central Europe). The second part focuses on the experiences of Péter Esterházy’s father as a labourer in Communist Hungary during the 1950s to 1970s, including the events of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.

Tibor Fischer’s novel “Under the Frog” follows two basketball players, Pataki and Gyuri, as they travel around Hungary in the 1950s. The novel chronicles the adventures of Pataki and Gyuri and their companions, in the turbulent times leading to the Hungarian uprising against the Soviets in 1956.

Magda Szabó’s novel “The Door” tells the story of the uneasy relationship between Magda, a writer, and her enigmatic housekeeper Emerence, in communist-era Hungary. Over the course of 20 years, the two women warm up to each other and become friends. However, when Emerence falls ill, Magda opens the closed door to Emerence’s house – and feels guilty about it for the rest of her life.

“Satantango” by Nobel Prize laureate Krasznahorkai is a post-modern novel about a messiah-like figure who arrives in a dilapidated Hungarian village, likely set during the communist era. He gains extensive control over the villagers and abuses their trust to exploit them.

“The Color of Smoke” is a coming-of-age story set in the Hungarian countryside during the 1930s and early 1940s. It follows the bittersweet adventures of a young Romani boy. Through vivid scenes of school life, first loves, and the looming shadow of fascism, the novel captures both the everyday joys and the injustices experienced by Hungary’s Roma communities during this turbulent period.

“Abigail” tells the story of Gina, a 14-year-old girl who is sent to an austere boarding school in eastern Hungary during the Second World War. She struggles to make friends, rebels against her teachers, and runs away. When she is brought back, she receives a mysterious note signed by ‘Abigail’ – a statue in the school garden believed by the other girls to possess magical powers. Gina realises that someone is using the legend of Abigail to help her and to protect the school’s Jewish students from the Nazis.

The historical novel “Century in Scarlet” is the first part of a trilogy about the Dukay family, also known as the “Ararat trilogy”. It chronicles the lives of two Hungarian brothers and their relatives in the ballrooms of the Habsburg Empire at the time of the European liberal revolutions of 1848. The novel features many historical events and figures, including Prince Metternich and the Hungarian freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth.