Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain wins a literary award

 

Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain

by Jill Culiner

 

 

       Ten days ago I received a telephone call telling me that I had won the very prestigious Canadian Jewish Literary Award for my non-fiction history/memoir/travelogue, Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain,  and that the jurors had been unanimous in voting for the book.

            What was my first reaction? I was certain it was a SPAM call. I called my publisher in London and she said that she’d heard nothing yet, but that award had to be valid; after all, the caller (a member of the jury) had left his phone number and email address. Still, I held my breath, doubting that it could be true. Then, five days later, the awards were finally announced on the Internet. It was official; I had won the award.

       What is the book about? In 1999, I went to the town of Kunmadaras Hungary to investigate a pogrom that had taken place in May 1946 when Holocaust survivors were accused of kidnapping Christian children and using their blood for kosher sausage. How could such an absurd accusation have been levelled after the war? Determined to discover the answer, I immediately jumped on a rattling old train and headed for that small town in the far east of the country.

       It didn’t dawn on me that locals might refuse to talk to me, nor did it worry me that I knew little of local history, nothing of local life, and that I spoke no Hungarian. I was like an obsessed bloodhound, sniffing out a scent, and there was no stopping me.

       When I arrived in Kunmadaras, I was accepted by a group of friendly locals: Klarika, the eternal party girl; the bibulous Karci; Tarzan, former black-marketeer and corrupt night watchman; Monika, Tarzan’s sullen Roma wife; Janci, the musician who refused Hungarian music in favour of elevator “noise”. And although they didn’t seem to resent my questioning, they all claimed to know nothing.

       I eventually settled into a traditional adobe house in the neighbouring village of Tiszaörs where society was an uneasy mix. Former communist officials lived elbow-to-elbow with their victims — nobles who had lost their lands, Swabian survivors of post-war ethnic cleansing, and expropriated peasants. There were German retirees and former members of the Hitler Youth Movement, and there were many Roma, a despised people.

       I remained in the country for over five years, investigating and learning. The manuscript of Those Absent was rewritten many times, and each paragraph was amended and refined until sentences shone. As the years went by, I dug through archives in France and Canada, discovered more information, then wove it into the whole. And I queried publishers. I finally found Claret Press in England, a publisher that seeks projects of social significance whether or not they are money makers.

       Receiving an award is incredibly satisfying; I’m being flown to Toronto for the award ceremony on the 27^th of October. Of course, I’m up on cloud nine — however, there is one nagging question: what will I do next?

 

https://books2read.com/GreatPlain

Web site: http://www.jillculiner-writer.com
Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/j-arlene-culiner