The Carcass Remover
Will be published approx. on 15. October 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-917653-04-6 (ISBN)
Description
A veteran of the Yugoslav Wars is hit hard by the fallout. In elegant, liquid prose Danyi conveys a bitter taste of one man's trauma. Memories collide, expand and direct the main character, while his body is also a battleground - terror lodged deep in his guts: in control of his bodily functions. The man remains nameless, identified by his preoccupation with his ex-girlfriend and his occupations: first petrol smuggler, then ex-soldier turned carcass remover, and finally dogsbody for a dodgy businessman. All the while he is crossing borders between Serbia, Croatia and Hungary, in relentless movement to alleviate his afflictions.
A visceral, yet poetic, exploration of the fragility of a man whose psyche is pushed to the limits under the stress of that most human of activities, organized military conflict, The Carcass Remover attempts to find a language to piece together a shattered world.
A visceral, yet poetic, exploration of the fragility of a man whose psyche is pushed to the limits under the stress of that most human of activities, organized military conflict, The Carcass Remover attempts to find a language to piece together a shattered world.
Reviews / Votes
'Zoltan Danyi's irate first novel The Carcass Remover is a literary event that has reached far beyond the borders of Hungary. ... Beneath every surface lies a sinister depth, and it is into these that Danyi mercilessly shines his light. A gaze one has to endure. He is a first-class novelist; above all, however, he offers us an urgent challenge in the face of Europe's breakdown.' Neue Zuercher Zeitung'The Carcass Remover is a perfect book of paradoxical beauty that deals with the ugly within us.' Sueddeutsche Zeitung
'The great success of The Carcass Remover is not entirely down to its aesthetic quality, but also its shocking timeliness, the permanent contemporary nature of history, its continual return, the death of culture, of humanity, of the myth of Europe. The fact that here and now we are also living in wartime.' Orsolya Bencsik, Mueut
'The beauty of the language with which a manic narrator wrestles his demons, chapter after chapter, is astonishing.' Literatur Spiegel
'Zoltan Danyi has written a great novel.' Frankfurter Rundschau
'This novel, awarded the esteemed Miklos-Meszoely Prize in Hungary, tells a tale of brutal violence and the drastic nature of bodily dysfunction ... in a highly refined way.' Deutschlandfunk Kultur
'Literature does not lend itself to the process of working through traumatic experiences, of this much Zoltan Danyi is convinced. But it does lend itself very well indeed to its powerful description and reproduction. The Carcass Remover is the ultimate proof.' ORF OE1 Ex libri
More details
Persons
Zoltan Danyi was born in Senta (Serbia) in 1972. He is the author of a short story collection and several volumes of poetry and prose, including essays on the Hungarian philosopher Bela Hamvas. His two novels A doegeltakarito (The Carcass Remover, 2015) and A rozsakrol (About the Roses, 2021) have been highly acclaimed in Hungary. They are both translated into German also.
Content
I. AMERICA
II. THE TRUCK
III. THE NATUROPATH
IV. CELIA
V. EUROPE
VI. THE DINNER
VII. THE SEA
II. THE TRUCK
III. THE NATUROPATH
IV. CELIA
V. EUROPE
VI. THE DINNER
VII. THE SEA