Siege 13: Stories - Softcover

Dobozy, Tamas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1571310975 ISBN 13: 9781571310972

Publisher: Milkweed Editions, 2013

Synopsis

Built around the events of the Soviet Budapest Offensive at the end of World War II and its long shadow, the stories in Siege 13 are full of wit, irony, and dark humor. In a series of linked stories that alternate between the siege itself and a contemporary community of Hungarian émigrés who find refuge in the West, Dobozy utilizes a touch of deadpan humor and a deep sense of humanity to extoll the horrors and absurdity of ordinary people caught in the crosshairs of brutal conflict and its silent aftermath.

Observing the uses and mis-uses of history, and their effect on individuals and community, Dobozy examines the often blurry line between right and wrong, portraying a world in which one man’s betrayal is another man’s survival, and in which common citizens are caught between the pincers of aggressors, leading to actions at once deplorable, perplexing, and heroic. Dobozy's stories feature characters, "lost forever in the labyrinth built on the thin border between memories and reality, past and present, words and silence. Like Nabokov, Tamas Dobozy combines the best elements of European and American storytelling, creating a fictional world of his own." (David Albahari, author of Gotz and Meyer)

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Fiction/Stories $16
He saw what the war had done to friendship after it had finished with everything else with sympathy, with intelligence, with self-awareness, with loyalty and affection and love all those impediments to survival, all those things that got in the way of forgetting who you were.

In the fall of 1944, the Red Army encircled Budapest, surrounding tens of thousands of German and Hungarian troops, and nearly a million civilians. The ensuing months witnessed one of the most brutal sieges of World War II, with block-to-block guerilla warfare followed by widespread disease, starvation, and unspeakable atrocities.

Richly grounded in this historical trauma and its extended aftermath, the stories in this fascinating collection alternate between the siege itself and a contemporary community of Hungarian émigrés who find refuge in the West. Illuminating the horror and absurdity of war with a wit and subtlety unique to fiction, Tamas Dobozy explores a world in which right and wrong are not easily distinguished, and a gruesome past that manifests itself in perplexing, often comical ways.
Tamas Dobozy has published over fifty works of short fiction in journals such as Granta, Agni, Fiction, One Story, and The Alaska Quarterly Review. In 2011, he was awarded a PEN/O. Henry Prize for The Restoration of the Villa Where Tíbor Kálmán Once Lived,” a story included in this collection. He was also awarded the inaugural Fulbright Research Chair in Creative Writing at New York University in 2009. Dobozy lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
|From the celebrated author of Last Notes, a brilliant collection of stories exploring a world in which ordinary people are caught between the pincers of aggressors, leading to actions at once deplorable, perplexing, and heroic

Praise for Siege 13

Tamas Dobozy’s stories are usually about Hungarians living outside of Hungary, lost forever in the labyrinth built on the thin border between memories and reality, past and present, words and silence. Like Nabokov, Dobozy combines the best elements of European and American storytelling, creating a fictional world of his own.” David Albahari

Praise for Last Notes

Strange and intense.” The New York Times

An artistic and intellectual boon.” Publishers Weekly

Strikes the right balance between the surreal and the realistic. These stories have a staying power, a bleak charm that remains long after you put down the book.” Bookslut

From the Back Cover

From the celebrated author of "Last Notes," a brilliant collection of stories exploring a world in which ordinary people are caught between the pincers of aggressors, leading to actions at once deplorable, perplexing, and heroic
Praise for "Siege 13"
"Tamas Dobozy's stories are usually about Hungarians living outside of Hungary, lost forever in the labyrinth built on the thin border between memories and reality, past and present, words and silence. Like Nabokov, Dobozy combines the best elements of European and American storytelling, creating a fictional world of his own." --David Albahari
Praise for "Last Notes"
"Strange and intense." --"The New York Times"
"An artistic and intellectual boon." --"Publishers Weekly"
"Strikes the right balance between the surreal and the realistic. These stories have a staying power, a bleak charm that remains long after you put down the book." --"Bookslut"

Edition details

• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1571310975
• ISBN 13: 9781571310972
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 339