Esther Kinsky

On a journey through the south-east of Hungary some years back, Esther Kinsky finds herself in a small town in the Alföld, the Great Hungarian Plain. Resignation and a glorification of the past are the most dominant threads in the inhabitants' conversations. Like many other things, the cinema, 'mozi' in Hungarian, has long since closed. Esther Kinsky's own passion for...

In May and September 1976, two severe earthquakes ripped through north-eastern Italy, causing severe damage to the landscape and its population. About a thousand people died under the rubble, tens of thousands were left without shelter, and many ended up leaving their homes in Friuli forever. The displacement of material as a result of the earthquakes was enormous. New terrain...

It is winter, and from her temporary residence on a hill between village and cemetery, she embarks on walks and outings, exploring the banal and the sublime with equal dedication and intensity. Seeing, describing, naming the world around her is her way of redefining her place within it. Written in a rich and poetic style, Grove is an exquisite novel...

After many years I had excised myself from the life I had led in town, just as one might cut a figure out of a landscape or group photo. Abashed by the harm I had wreaked on the picture left behind, and unsure where the cut-out might end up next, I lived a provisional existence. I did so in a...