The Modern Novel

Biography

György Konrád (often known as George Konrad in the West) was born in Debrecen in 1933 and grew up in nearby Berettyóújfalu. His father was a hardware merchant. He narrowly escaped being killed in the Holocaust by hiding in a safe house, with his sister. He studied literature at the Loránd Eötvös University and worked as a social worker, editor, librarian, and sociologist, careers that have been the subject of his fiction. His novels have been bleak and grim portraits of the downside of the Hungarian and Communist regime and follow on from, both in terms of display of talent and portrayals of despair, the works of Franz Kafka. In 1990, Konrád was elected president of International P.E.N., the first Central European to hold this position. He died in 2019.

Other sites

His homepage
György Konrád
György Konrád
Interview
His homepage (in Hungarian)