My Secret Life
Selected Poems
Published on 20. February 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
80 pages
978-1-78037-703-2 (ISBN)
Description
Krisztina Toth is one of the leading Hungarian poets of the generation who began publishing in the late 1980s. The recipient of many awards, she is also renowned for her fiction which has been translated into many languages including English.
My Secret Life is the first book of Krisztina Toth's poetry in English translation. The poems were selected by her from three of her nine published collections, with the addition of some new or previously uncollected poems.
'Her work has the nervous energy of the times but is shaped by a deep and disciplined intelligence. Her subjects are invariably human. They are concerned with love, family, friendship, loss, and a kind of existential disaffection. Tragic in one sense but ever inventive, full of life's minute yet highly resonant particulars, they seem to extend into an almost cinematic narrative about the cruelties of factory farming, murder, ageing, the treatment of women as sex toys and death itself. She is a bravura formalist when she needs to be. Her vigour and scope are enormous.' - George Szirtes
'Poems pulsating with sensual power, deeply painful poems, about everything that is regarded as very personal.[...] Not with her themes, not with her tone does she prove to be an innovator. In this respect she remains faithful to the great, intellectual current of Hungarian poetry, a current that is not very old. It can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century [...] Krisztina Toth proves herself to be an innovator within this important tradition through the stirring rhythm of her poems. She wraps her persona, ready for any change of form, in rhythm. In other words, she makes herself impersonal in the most personal of ways and ready for confessions that are relevant for everyone; through her changing tone, through her surprises. [...] Krisztina Toth's composition sets her apart from all the others. She has the strength of a buffalo and the weightlessness of a butterfly.' - Peter Nadas, afterword to Barcode
?Reviewing Krisztina Toth's short story collection Pixel under the title 'The Hungarian Author who foresaw the future of Nationalism', Stephanie Newman wrote: 'Toth muses that generations of humans, like bobbing needles, are "seaming together the fraying layers of the past and the present". Their countries of origin don't matter; neither do their religions, genders, or ethnicities. What Toth creates in Pixel is emblematic of Europe as she sees it: a place in which "everything is sewn together while the thread itself is invisible".'
My Secret Life is the first book of Krisztina Toth's poetry in English translation. The poems were selected by her from three of her nine published collections, with the addition of some new or previously uncollected poems.
'Her work has the nervous energy of the times but is shaped by a deep and disciplined intelligence. Her subjects are invariably human. They are concerned with love, family, friendship, loss, and a kind of existential disaffection. Tragic in one sense but ever inventive, full of life's minute yet highly resonant particulars, they seem to extend into an almost cinematic narrative about the cruelties of factory farming, murder, ageing, the treatment of women as sex toys and death itself. She is a bravura formalist when she needs to be. Her vigour and scope are enormous.' - George Szirtes
'Poems pulsating with sensual power, deeply painful poems, about everything that is regarded as very personal.[...] Not with her themes, not with her tone does she prove to be an innovator. In this respect she remains faithful to the great, intellectual current of Hungarian poetry, a current that is not very old. It can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century [...] Krisztina Toth proves herself to be an innovator within this important tradition through the stirring rhythm of her poems. She wraps her persona, ready for any change of form, in rhythm. In other words, she makes herself impersonal in the most personal of ways and ready for confessions that are relevant for everyone; through her changing tone, through her surprises. [...] Krisztina Toth's composition sets her apart from all the others. She has the strength of a buffalo and the weightlessness of a butterfly.' - Peter Nadas, afterword to Barcode
?Reviewing Krisztina Toth's short story collection Pixel under the title 'The Hungarian Author who foresaw the future of Nationalism', Stephanie Newman wrote: 'Toth muses that generations of humans, like bobbing needles, are "seaming together the fraying layers of the past and the present". Their countries of origin don't matter; neither do their religions, genders, or ethnicities. What Toth creates in Pixel is emblematic of Europe as she sees it: a place in which "everything is sewn together while the thread itself is invisible".'
More details
Edition
Paperback original
Language
English
Place of publication
Tyne and Wear
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 154 mm
Width: 231 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
192 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78037-703-2 (9781780377032)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2025
Bloodaxe Books
€17.49
Available for download
Persons
Born in 1967, Krisztina Toth is one of the most popular and best known Central European authors, and the recipient of numerous awards. She studied sculpting and literature in Budapest, spending two years in Paris during her university years. She has published nine books of poetry and ten books of prose to date as well as 24 books for children. In 2015, her novel Aquarium featured on the shortlist of the German Internationaler Literaturpreis. Her work has been been translated into 25 languages; her novels, short stories and poems can be read in German, French, English, Polish, Finnish, Swedish, Czech and Spanish, among others. Her bestselling short novel The Monkey's Eyes was published in Hungary in 2023; an English translation is forthcoming from Seven Stories Press in the US. Her children's books treat topics considered unusual, even taboo, in children's literature. Mum Had an Operation explains cancer to schoolchildren in a humorous and lyrical tone, while the main characters in A Story for Nose-Blowers are two members of the 'Snot family' who live in the right and the left cavity of a nose. The Girl Who Wouldn't Talk was inspired by the story of her own adopted daughter. Her musical Wanderer of the Years explains passing and letting go to children, whereas Pokemon Go and The Rubber Bat are for adults.
Her plays include The Bat, published in English translation in the compilation Plays from Contemporary Hungary: 'Difficult Women' and Resistant Dramatic Voices (Bloomsbury, 2023). Two collections of her short stories have also been published in English translation, Pixel (Seagull Books, 2019) and Barcode (Jantar Publishing, 2023). Her work was featured in the anthology New Order: Hungarian Poets of the Post 1989 Generation (Arc Publications, 2010). The first book of her poetry in English translation, My Secret Life: Selected Poems, translated by George Szirtes, is published by Bloodaxe in 2025.
Her plays include The Bat, published in English translation in the compilation Plays from Contemporary Hungary: 'Difficult Women' and Resistant Dramatic Voices (Bloomsbury, 2023). Two collections of her short stories have also been published in English translation, Pixel (Seagull Books, 2019) and Barcode (Jantar Publishing, 2023). Her work was featured in the anthology New Order: Hungarian Poets of the Post 1989 Generation (Arc Publications, 2010). The first book of her poetry in English translation, My Secret Life: Selected Poems, translated by George Szirtes, is published by Bloodaxe in 2025.
Content
11 Introduction by George Szirtes
21 East European Triptych [SP]
24 Sleeper [V]
26 River of Sounds [V]
29 Lover's Dream [ML]
31 Tyrannosaurus Rex [V]
33 Tourist [V]
37 Send Me a Smile [P]
39 Dog [V]
41 Barrier [V]
42 New Year's Eve [P]
43 Folder [P]
44 Ode to Men of Fifty [P]
45 Gumtree [B]
47 Where [B]
48 Valley Road [B]
50 Song of the Secret Life [V]
52 Universal Adaptor [V]
55 Time, time, time [V]
57 How Are You All? [V]
58 Duration [V]
60 Camera [V]
61 Twenty Lines with a Cat [B]
62 Hourglass [V]
63 Sunday [V]
65 Fig Tree [V]
66 Cold Weather [V]
67 Homeward [U]
68 Dodo [U]
70 Oven Glove [U]
72 Any Country in the World [V]
74 The Student [V]
76 Rainy Summer [V]
This book presents a selection of her poems made by Krisztina Toth for George Szirtes to translate, taken from five collections published by Magveto Kiado in Budapest: Porho (Dust, 2001), Siro ponyva (Weeping awning, 2004), Magas labda (High ball, 2009), Vilagadapter (Universal adaptor, 2016) and Balnadal (Whalesong, 2021). The poems 'Homeward', 'Dodo' and 'Oven Glove' are previously unpublished in Hungarian in book form. In the contents list the initials [P], SP], [V], [ML] and [B] - or [U] for uncollected - indicate which of these collections each poem comes from.
21 East European Triptych [SP]
24 Sleeper [V]
26 River of Sounds [V]
29 Lover's Dream [ML]
31 Tyrannosaurus Rex [V]
33 Tourist [V]
37 Send Me a Smile [P]
39 Dog [V]
41 Barrier [V]
42 New Year's Eve [P]
43 Folder [P]
44 Ode to Men of Fifty [P]
45 Gumtree [B]
47 Where [B]
48 Valley Road [B]
50 Song of the Secret Life [V]
52 Universal Adaptor [V]
55 Time, time, time [V]
57 How Are You All? [V]
58 Duration [V]
60 Camera [V]
61 Twenty Lines with a Cat [B]
62 Hourglass [V]
63 Sunday [V]
65 Fig Tree [V]
66 Cold Weather [V]
67 Homeward [U]
68 Dodo [U]
70 Oven Glove [U]
72 Any Country in the World [V]
74 The Student [V]
76 Rainy Summer [V]
This book presents a selection of her poems made by Krisztina Toth for George Szirtes to translate, taken from five collections published by Magveto Kiado in Budapest: Porho (Dust, 2001), Siro ponyva (Weeping awning, 2004), Magas labda (High ball, 2009), Vilagadapter (Universal adaptor, 2016) and Balnadal (Whalesong, 2021). The poems 'Homeward', 'Dodo' and 'Oven Glove' are previously unpublished in Hungarian in book form. In the contents list the initials [P], SP], [V], [ML] and [B] - or [U] for uncollected - indicate which of these collections each poem comes from.