The text ‘Rope from a neck of a hanged man’ is taken from Nova, collection of short stories set in JasnáHorka – an imaginary, yet recognisably Slovakian, Central cum East European village – covering key historical junctures such as the world wars and the transition. It’s a somewhatmythical, fairytale-like setting that’s nevertheless also grounded in the real world, albeit one that’s intertwined with superstitions, beliefs and Central and East European history.

Incidentally, Nova itself is a grape variety that was widespread in Central and Eastern Europe in the middle of the 20th century, but is now outlawed as the wine that was made out of it was extremely harmful to its imbibers’ health.

Nova was published by in 2011 by Kalligram, a renowned Budapest publisher, and met with great success. In 2012, won the Sándor Bródy Prize with it for the best debut novel of the year. “The village – this whole hopeless, foolish, incompetent, superstitious and dependent Central Europe – sluggishly drags itself towards destruction, and it won’t be missed, even if  the last remnants of physical, spiritual or moral power, or rather its memories, still manifestthemselves at times.” – Noémi Saly, member of the Sándor Bródy Prize advisory board.

The following year, Nova was made into a radio play, and it was published in Bratislava, in Slovakian, in 2014. Further novels, The Funeral (2016), The wonderful life of Kornél Janega (2018) The happiest man in the world (2020) was published also by Kalligram publishing house, and has met with critical acclaim.

Gábor Kálmán was born in 1982 in Nové Zámky, in Czechoslovakia, and was later brought up around Banská Stiavnica and Levice, which are in present-day Slovakia. In Hungary, studied at the grammar boarding school of the Pápa Reform College. Graduated from the Budapest Eötvös Loránd Science University’s Faculty of Arts in 2006 with a Masters in Hungarian Language and Literature.