Each month, thirty-three critics invited by German radio broadcaster SüdWestrundFunk pick new releases that they wish to expose to as many readers as possible and give them points.
Esterházy?s ?Introduction to Literature? garnered 31 points from the critics, putting it in 6th-7th place, sharing the positing with Denis Johnson?s ?Jesus? Son?. In first place on the list was Helmut Lethen?s ?Der Sound der Väter: Gottfried Benn und seine Zeit?, or ?The Sound of the Fathers: Gottfried Benn and His Time?.
SüdWestrundFunk calls Esterházy's book ?A break with the Stalinist cultural policy of his country, a labyrinthine encyclopedia which seeks and finds the connection to modern literature, a powerful plead for the freedom of speech, a book of opposition that has survived its opponents.
?Einführung in die schöne Literatur?, published in German by Berlin Verlag, is translated by Bernd-Rainer Barth, György Buda, Zsuzsanna Gahse, Péter and Angelika Máté, Terézia Mora and Hans-Henning Paetzke.
Source: www.litera.hu
