FUTURE PLANS: Direct mail/email campaign and more targeted outreach
(e.g. via social media) to US & Canadian academics and
UK/Europe-based scholars and students of the Roma Perhaps a 2nd
edition at some point targeting academia, with a VIP foreword and
more information on the Roma
FROM THE 2014 PUBLICATION: Wide distribution of print ARC's and
e-galleys yielded some reviews Online advertising Targeted print
advertising May 2014 launch in New York City hosted by the
Hungarian Cultural Center/Hungarian consulate--with Romani folk
music, and noted writers and scholars discussing the book in the
context of the Romani Holocaust and the present-day situation of
underclasses the world over.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Menyhért Lakatos (1926–2007) was the prizewinning author of many
books. His magnum opus, The Color of Smoke⎯inspired by his own
youth in a Romani settlement, and first published in Hungarian in
1975⎯has been translated into more than half a dozen languages.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Ann Major (1928–) has brought several Hungarian books to English,
including Paul Lendvai's The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of
Victory in Defeat (Princeton University Press), and also translates
from German. The author of a memoir, A Carpet of Jacaranda (Sydney
Jewish Museum, 2013), she lives in Lane Cove, Australia.
“A picaresque tale of the struggles of the Romany (also known as
the Gypsies) in Hungary before World War II, appearing for the
first time in English . . . A rare, observant . . . snapshot of
Romany life.”
⎯Kirkus Reviews
“Gypsy characters . . . appear time and again in literature.
However, this is the first novel in which a Gypsy himself depicts
his people—marked for centuries by ostracism and misery—with
complete authenticity and literary truthfulness . . . Its
description of the life of a Gypsy group during the 1930s and 1940s
grabs the reader through the intensity and immediacy of its
ambiance and language. . . . Characters, legends, customs, and
Dionysian passions—brought to life superbly—are effortlessly
treated in colorful episodes. . . . A one-of-a-kind coming-of-age
novel.”
—Neue Zürcher Zeitung
“It would not be an exaggeration to describe Lakatos as a Romani
Proust.”
⎯Cécile Kovácsházy, TheConversation.com
“The Color of Smoke is a gripping and important narrative of a
subject obscured by myth and misconception. Thanks to Lakatos’s
elegant work, ignorance regarding the fate of the Roma people is no
longer an excuse for inaction on their behalf.”
–Kati Marton, author of Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey
to America
“That it took four decades for Menyhért Lakatos’s epic novel The
Color of Smoke to finally appear in English translation is
astonishing. To me and many other Hungarians, this 1975 classic
shined a light on a marginalized people who lived among us but
about whom we knew little: the Roma (Gypsies), who are by far the
largest minority in Europe. The book is a riveting coming-of-age
story set during World War II. It also powerfully chronicles the
increasing social tensions that culminated in the murder of
hundreds of thousands of Roma in the Holocaust.”
⎯Géza Röhrig, writer and actor (Son of Saul), writing for the Wall
Street Journal
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