The latest addition to my website is László Krasznahorkai:‘s Az ellenállás melankóliája (The Melancholy of Resistance). It is primarily set in a small Hungarian town, clearly based on Gyula, Krasznahorkai’s home town. Lots of things seem to be going wrong: buildings and trees falling, rubbish everywhere, lots of feral cats, trains disappearing. The carnival, featuring the body of a giant whale comes to town and attracts numerous people. Who are they and where did they come from? We follow the stories of Valuska, the local postman, considered the village idiot but with more than meets the eye and his close friend Mr Eszter, former director of music at the school who suddenly quit and took to his bed. when all hell breaks loose – riots linked to the carnival, with Valuska inadvertently involved – the army is called in. Is it simply the riff-raff misbehaving or is it the devil’s work? The locals are not sure. In any case it is a superb book from Krasznahorkai.