First published in Hungary in 1986 after a five-year battle with censors, Peter
Nadas's "A Book of Memories "is a modern classic, a multi-layered narrative that
tells three parallel stories of love and betrayal. The first takes place in Eas
t Berlin in the 1970s and features an unnamed Hungarian writer ensnared in a lov
e triangle with a young German and a famous aging actress. The second, composed
by the writer, is the story of a late nineteenth century German aesthete whose e
xperiences mirror his own. And the third voice is that of a friend from the writ
er's childhood, who brings his own unexpected bearing to the story. Compared by
critics to Proust, Mann, and Joyce, this sensuous tour de force is "unquestionab
ly a masterpiece".
