Panni Puskás was hailed by critics as “provocative” and “punk”. Her novel is a set of monologues by three women from Budapest – two of them in their thirties, one in her fifties. They are talking to the reader as much as to each other, so that gradually we realize that though they seem to have nothing in common, these are in fact two sisters and their mother.
One sister works at a multinational in Budapest, and hates it. She spends her free time with drugs, smashing a BMW, pondering revolution, and waiting for something to happen. The other sister moved to Sicily, and lives in picturesque surroundings with her lover, an Italian girl whose eyesight is steadily failing. The boundless sea holds wonders, but horrors too: refugee boats are idling near the shore. Writing letters to a daughter, her mother relates her life starting from her teens, her pregnancy from a hip but obstinate boy, who left her to drop out of school into poverty.
Panni Puskás has her protagonists struggle to find meaning in their lives, as they try to comprehend, cope with or rebel against challenges posed by Hungary, Europe, and the world today. A batch of inadequate responses to meaningless consumerism, the migration crisis or a severely stressed mother-daughter relationship leave room for a subplot following the story of Santa Lucia, the patron saint of Siracusa.
Can we ever really save anyone? Ourselves, our family, loved ones, or even just random strangers who are suffering? In sweeping and refreshingly current narrative reminiscent of Sofi Oksanen, Panni Puskás is pushing her characters to find answers.
Provocative, fresh and punk
Product details
ISBN 978 963 14 4263 2
2023, paperback
232 pages, 4299 HUF
Rights sold
Serbian, Imperativ
Macedonian, Čudna Šuma
Bulgarian, Colibri
Magvető Rights 
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