Other Death

Barnás (The Parasite) spins an arresting but jumbled tale of a man’s dissociation in Budapest near the end of communism and its downfall. The unnamed 40-year-old narrator, a former literature professor, is purportedly working on a novel, for which he receives financial support from a German man named Michael. The narrator met Michael six years earlier, while the narrator was playing Mozart on the street after a mental breakdown, which was triggered by his lover leaving him. Instead of writing the novel, the narrator devotes his time to an obscure manuscript titled Transcriptions while reflecting on his life. Once the book is complete, he struggles to find a job, eventually settling on a position as a guard at a local museum. At work, the narrator repeatedly loses track of time, finding himself unexpectedly in different towns and forgetting how he got there. Over the course of 10 years at the museum, he slowly unknots his troubled past. There are many resonant passages on the narrator’s unraveling (“The changes underway inside us are often nearly impossible to notice; we may not want to. Then suddenly you realise everything is moving of its own volition”). Too often, though, Barnás leaves the reader feeling as lost as his protagonist. Despite moments of brilliance, it’s a bit of a slog. (July)