Mrs Kleofas’s Rooster

A trio of darkly elegant, women-centric novellas from a master of twentieth-century Hungarian literature.

Mrs Kleofas’s Rooster brings together three captivating novellas by Gyula Krúdy, originally written in the 1920s and now available in English for the first time. Each story centres on a woman protagonist: a timeless adventuress, a resilient single mother, and a seductive Budapest femme fatale, respectively.

In the title novella, a roguish narrator listens to the thrilling life story of an ageless, mysterious woman whose journey takes her from a childhood of suffering to a career as a cunning accomplice in daring schemes.

The next story, NN, follows the life of a steadfast single mother, Juliska, amid the rhythms of village life.

In Autumn Meeting, Krúdy's sharp wit unfolds through Rizili, a charming yet ruthless socialite who leads a suspended jockey on an intoxicating night through Budapest's City Park.