The Devil's Horseshoe and Other Stories

by Ervin Lázár, Judith Sollosy (translator)

The Devil's Horseshoe and Other Stories is based on the author's experiences as a child growing up in a remote Hungarian village where the people were poor in goods, but rich in tales. Through the telling of fifteen tales, it brings to life the wondrous world of the countryside as people experienced it, which throbs to a different rhythm than the world of city folk. From a naked angel boy who sneaks into a kitchen to pilfer kitchen utensils at night ("The Sneak Theif"), through a village blacksmith who shoes the Devil's horse ("The Devil's Horseshoe"), and the tale of a party functionary who comes to portion out the land among the peasants but dazed by his power over them leaves with a promise to ressurect the dead ("The China Doll"), each story takes on the quality of a hallucinatory exploration into that part of the soul where beauty, hope, and yearning live in close proximity, and where miracles are a way of life.

The lively story-telling, the sparse yet evocative beauty of the language, the persistent yet nonobtrusive narrative presence, make "The Devil's Horseshoe and Other Stories" a memorable and highly employable example of a very special brand of folk surrealism, the Central European counterpart of the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but most especially, Isabel Allende.

117 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Ervin Lázár (May 5, 1936 – December 22, 2006) was a Hungarian author. Although he wrote a novel (Fehér tigris (White Tiger), 1971) and a number of short stories, he is best known for his tales and stories for children.

Reviews

[Hun Garian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes sad, sometimes whimsical, sometimes eerie, all the (very short) tales here take place in an unspecified time (likely 1930s-1950s) in a fictional rural Hungarian village. The feel of the writing reminded me strongly of Ray Bradbury's non-science fiction short stories. I dug it.

[Adrian Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folk magic meets Communism. Astonishing.