Under the Frog FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Hungarians have an expression for the worst place in the world to be: "under the frog's ass down a coal mine." Under the Frog, Tibor Fischer's brilliant recreation of postwar Eastern Europe, was the surprise literary success of London last year, where it won the Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is the very witty and very sad account of two young men who survive the chaos of communism as part of a traveling basketball team. Set in Hungary from 1944 to 1956, the story follows the fortunes of the team in pursuit of sex and the avoidance of work. Exuberant and energetic, Tibor Fischer's first novel is a fascinating and oblique commentary on everyday life during those dramatic years. Fischer writes with the verve and irreverence of Martin Amis, but the world he recreates is one we know from George Konrad and Milan Kundera.
FROM THE CRITICS
Nation
An audacious act of creativity....Of all the young novelists working today, Tibor Fischer may be the most adept at taking chances in his work.
A.S. Byatt
Ferociously funny, bitterly sad, and perfectly paced.
Larry Wolff
Brilliant...Under the Frog is fully a work of dynamic historical imagination. Fischer writes in a comic spirit of funky, horny alienation. —The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
Fischer's debut novel, about two young men who escape Communist Hungary to live a carefree live of sex and unemployment while being part of a traveling basketball team, was a Booker finalist. (Apr.)
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