Seiobo There Below

Description

‘A Hungarian modernist whose sentences wind and unwind and rewind, creating what one translator described as ‘a slow lava-flow of narrative, a vast black river of type.’ The Economist
‘The latest novel from “the contemporary Hungarian master of the apocalypse’ Susan Sontag

Translated from Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet

Beauty, in László Krasznahorkai’s new novel, reflects, however fleeting, the sacred — even if we are mostly unable to bear it.

In Seiobo There Below we see the goddess Seiobo returning to mortal realms in search of perfection. An ancient Buddha being restored; Perugino managing his workshop; a Japanese Noh actor rehearsing; a fanatic of Baroque music lecturing to a handful of old villagers; tourists intruding into the rituals of Japan’s most sacred shrine; a heron hunting.… Seiobo overs over it all, watching closely.

Melancholic and brilliant, Seiobo There Below urges us to treasure the concentration that goes into the perception of great art, leading us to re-examine our connection to immanence.