At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly 3-year-old boy. The boy is not his son. It is a single act of violence, but this one slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen.

From one of America's most brilliant critics and cultural commentators comes a long-awaited collection of penetrating autobiographical essays and a riveting short memoir.

'An enthralling, lucid and superbly confident work of art that grips from the first page - This is a big novel and a masterful debut by a writer whose talent is equal to his project, and whose project could not be more timely.' Chris Cleave

Satantango is the masterpiece of post-war Hungarian literature, now available for the first time in English.