Festival president Salman Rushdie said he considered Esterházy to be among the most important contemporary authors on the global literary scene.
Esterházy demonstrated his wit and inventiveness already on the first evening of the festival, at an event at Town Hall.
Esterházy read selections from his book Celestial Harmonies in Hungarian as the English translation was projected behind him, but local audiences did not lose anything in translation, thanks to the author's unique personality, said Jakab László Orsós, who heads the Hungarian Cultural Institute in New York.
Orsós added that the institute received many, many congratulatory letters - as well as manuscripts by local authors - on behalf of Esterházy after the festival ended on Sunday.
The theme of this year's PEN World Voices Festival was Public Lives/Private Lives. Next year's theme could involve even more participation from Hungarian writers, thanks to the close cooperation between the Hungarian Cultural Institute in New York and the festival's organisers as well as next year's Hungarian Cultural Season in New York.
Photo: László Hofer (MTI)
