Protokoll

A novel in verse about Ágoston Mátrai, head of protocol at the Hungarian Foreign Ministry: a servant of the state and a grey eminence, a hero of our time who is also a close relative of the nineteenth century's superfluous men. He comes from a good family, is cultured, charming, financially secure and hypersensitive. Is that enough for happiness? Should the woman of his dreams be Blanka, his own cousin, a world-class tennis player, or Fruzsina, the inscrutable stenographer of Parliament? The book follows how a middle manager in a ministry lives his days and what he does with responsibility, his closed life and his anxieties, giving a detailed picture of Budapest's middle class and of the art world behind the scenes.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

401 pages in the original

Genres

Satire, Love (assigned by AI)

Set in

Hungary

First published

2010 by Magvető

Author's age

40 when first published

ISBN

9789631428506 (original)