Genre:
Literary fiction (a story of memory)
Language:
Hungarian 🇭🇺
Publication:
„Vörös fény a hatvanason” — selected for the anthology of Egy út, millió történet, the short-story competition held by the Eötvös10 Cultural Centre and the Ex Libris Library for the 150th anniversary of Andrássy Avenue.
Out of 176 entries, the jury — Szilvia Artner, László Garaczi, Ágnes Gurubi and Endre Kukorelly — placed it among the highlighted works. The results and a reading evening with music were held on 2 September 2026 at Eötvös10.
Forthcoming: the competition anthology.
Reading:
Read by Ádám Porogi, actor of the Radnóti Miklós Theatre, at the awards evening: recording on YouTube (11:06).
The readings were staged under Radnóti Plusz, a joint programme of the Radnóti Miklós Theatre and Eötvös10. Anna Csábi, actor and director, read the pieces written from a woman’s perspective, and Kristóf Darvas accompanied and linked the readings on live piano.
Summary:
A man rides the Millennium Underground and always gets off at Oktogon, even when his business is at Bajza Street. As a child his grandfather walked him home from piano lessons along this stretch, and always stopped beneath the same building — the one with red neon letters burning on it. The grandfather never spoke about the war, and about the years that followed even less. Decades later only signs are left to the grandson: the language of official reports that slipped out of the old man’s mouth now and then; a door that could never be shut; a remembered image the calendar refuses to allow. The building is a museum today, and the story goes exactly as far as its narrator does — to the ticket desk. It begins in a family memory and ends where such memories end: without a question, without an answer.
