The White King

by Gy

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  A Note on Names

  Though set in a nameless land, The White King is inspired by Communist-era Romania—more specifically, by that almost mythical expanse of western Romania called Transylvania, which is home to various ethnic groups, Hungarians and Romanians most prominent among them. To Hungarian readers this variegated cultural-linguistic setting is apparent in the characters' names; all of them, regardless of origin, appear as per Hungarian orthography, since this novel was written in that language. The one exception, because the English spelling captures the essence of the original while also being fairly pronounceable, is the name of the narrator himself: Djata.

  Readers wishing to imagine how the names sound in Hungarian may consult the list below.

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  Acknowledgments

  As small boy I was a great fan of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. I was convinced that this book, like all others, of course, had been written in Hungarian. Until the moment I picked it up in a different Hungarian translation, stunned and angered to find a different book rendered in different words. This experience shook me to the core, introduced me to the issue of translation, and made me understand that a translation of a novel is nothing short of a rebirth. So I'd like to thank all those who taught me about this and those who helped in publishing an English version of The White King: Nathaniel Rich, Radhika Jones, Philip Gourevitch, Anjali Singh, Jane Lawson, Janet Silver, Evan McGarvey, Géza Morcsányi, Katharina Raabe, Eva Schwartz, Istvan Géher, Ádám Nádasdy, Peter Doherty, and Ferenc Takacs. I'd also like to express my gratitude to my agent, Chris Parris-Lamb, for doing such an incredible job and being a true pathfinder. But above all, I have to thank another keen woodsman, the translator Paul Olchváry, for his unparalleled dedication and enthusiasm. Nagyon köszönöm!

  —Gy. D.

  ***

  Bringing A fehér király into English was immensely satisfying not only because it is as much a riveting story as it is a beautiful one, but also because I was blessed to be translating an author who himself has translated novels from English to Hungarian. Throughout, György Dragomán devoted painstaking attention to my queries, providing invaluable suggestions as he combed through revision after revision with keen insight, sensitivity, and kindness. For a translator this was a rare pleasure, and it was much appreciated.

  —P. O.

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  About the Author

  GYÖRGY DRAGOMÁN is thirty-four years old. A Samuel Beckett scholar and film critic, he has also translated works by James Joyce, Ian McEwan, Irvine Welsh, and Micky Donnelly into Hungarian. Awarded Hungary's prestigious Sándor Márai Prize, The White King, though strictly a work of fiction, is loosely based on Dragoman's own experiences growing up in the 1980s in Romania during the rule of Ceausescu. Part of it appeared in the Paris Review. The author lives in Budapest with his wife, a poet, and their two young sons.

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  About the Translator

  PAUL OLCHVÁRY has translated many books from Hungarian, including Károly Pap's novel Azarel (Steerforth), and has received translation awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, and Hungary's Milán Füst Foundation. His shorter translations have appeared in the Hungarian Quarterly and the Paris Review. A native of Amherst, New York, he lives both in Kismaros, Hungary, and various reaches of the American Northeast.

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