Epitaphs for Underdogs

Overview

"A wonderful discovery" (Ian McEwan), this is a beguiling dystopian tale of a young man confronted with the truth about freedom.

On a hot summer night, a young man sits in a dark cell in a Hungarian prison. The guards do not explain why he is here; he does not know if he will ever be released. But he is far from alone. Others, too, are trapped within the stone walls - singers and students, sages and spies. As the days pass, the man is drawn into their conversations and their lives, and soon becomes a witness to their sometimes outlandish acts of rebellion.

Written in the early 1980s and inspired by Andrew Szepessy's own experiences, Epitaphs for Underdogs is a beguiling and exhilarating novel about power, justice and freedom, and about the solidarity that can be found in even the most unexpected places.

Reviews

"Epitaphs for Underdogs is a strange and beautiful fiction, a profound meditation on the totalitarian spirit, enriched by dark humour and warm observation. With its sense of the absurd, its laughter in the dark, it belongs in the great tradition of dystopian literature, with echoes of early Kundera and Nabokov. Szepessy is a wonderful discovery." —Ian McEwan

Author Biography

Andrew Szepessy was born to Hungarian refugees in Brighton in 1940. After spending his childhood in London, he read English at Oxford and studied at the Budapest Academy of Drama and Film. Szepessy worked in Norway and England as a film director, editor and scriptwriter before settling in Hungary, where he continued to write until his death in 2018.