Lázár

A noble Hungarian family declines through the decades, from aristocratic decadence to impoverishment and flight - by a young author writing with the assurance of an old master.

An astonishing book - a multi-generational family story filled with deeply original characters and gripping scenes, at times realistic, at times disturbingly dreamlike. This novel would be an event in any case. But the fact that its author has only just reached adulthood turns its publication into a thunderclap. A truly great writer steps onto the stage , in full possession of his powers

The new magician . . . A magnificent novel . . . The splendour and misery of an entire era

A first-class page-turner . . . the most astonishing discovery of the season

A vivid, strange story that sustains its tension

Lázár proves worthy of the commotion : a keenly observed work that blends youthful verve with a seasoned wisdom... With Biedermann, fiction becomes the space in which both the vast sweep of history and the intimate, corporeal realities of those living through it can be apprehended, rendering the repetition of tragedy not abstract or statistical, but painfully, vividly human

Gothic and fairytale-esque, it's a definite page-turner

Biedermann not only shows plenty of skill as a novelist, but wisdom well beyond his years. His imaginative capacity and desire to engage with both the discomforts of history and the cornucopia of dead authors who inspired him gives you - at least, it gave me - a cynicism-killing hope for the future of literature . Lázár , above all, shows that the drab realism of too many millennials doesn't cut it for the generation now coming of age. To Gen Z novelists, that style is past its sell-by date. This is the future now.

Fabulous is the word for this twisted modern fairytale

Magic glints and mystery drifts like smoke through this epic story of a dynasty stripped of wealth and dignity . . . A deserved international sensation

Captivating and vivid, creating an intriguing atmosphere of secrets, repression and furtive but robust sexuality . . Anyone who reads this novel will be intrigued to see what its precocious author does next

Sweeping . . . rich with sensory description, gems of historical detail and surreal twists . . . audacious

Unmistakably the work of a talent worth watching

Nelio Biedermann, born in 2003, grew up on Lake Zurich. His paternal family is of Hungarian nobility; his grandparents fled to Switzerland in the 1950s. Biedermann studied German and film studies at the University of Zurich. His novel Lázár will be published in more than twenty countries.