Czekanomłotek (2013)

If there was an English name on the cover I would believe with no hesitation that I am reading an excellent American novel in a brilliant translation. (…) I use unclear wording on purpose, so that I will not destroy the punchline which is more exciting, more mysterious and more unexpected than the one of a perfectly written, eventful, colourful American action thriller of these days. Anyway similarly to those, it is enthralling and as a novel, it is perfectly professional. (Life and Literature)

DanCoolbirth?’  he asks.

‘Fuck no, it’s Jack London – and I shoot.

A (grand American) novel. 416 pages, 2013, Magvető

Centauri, the ‘mysterious writer’, doesn’t live in the States, and yet his first novel is a genuine modern grand American novel. Spine-tingling accidents, attacks, brain surgery, boozing sessions, crises, and amorous disappointments mark the life of young Dan Coolbirth, whose romance with the much older Angelica is interrupted by a double homicide. That is when the road movie starts, and Dan flees from California northwards to Montana, where he comes across Teya, an Indian girl of ravishing beauty and special powers.
Almost filmically, the story of an extravagant, mad and yet in many respects painfully average family is pieced together, with appearances from countless colourful and unforgettable figures, with writers like Salinger and Melville appearing as indirectly important characters, and light is even shed on what links the family to Jack London.

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If there was an English name on the cover I would believe with no hesitation that I am reading an excellent American novel in a brilliant translation. (…) I use unclear wording on purpose, so that I will not destroy the punchline which is more exciting, more mysterious and more unexpected than the one of a perfectly written, eventful, colourful American action thriller of these days. Anyway similarly to those, it is enthralling and as a novel, it is perfectly professional. (Life and Literature)

Probably one of the most exciting undertakings of the book (beside its mixed genre) is that it creates a way of speaking that has been missing from the Hungarian literature till today with an about 50-year delay. (Life and Literature)

I have never met any contemporary Hungarian novel, that uses our everyday spoken language in a so cretive and rich meanwhile so complex way. (Port.hu)

Centauri’s novel is one of the greatest work of the latest years. (Litera – József Tamás Reményi)

Centauri’s prose is infinite and can not be coded. It mixes marks of great ancestors with popcultural and literal hints, with magical and merciless realism, and from the whole he creates something typically Centauri-like. And he does this in a way that we can not even define what makes it typical. We should rather say: everything together. It must have a unique place on the shelf. (Bookblog)

”Centauri plays on his piano using amazing Hungarian modulations throughout the keyboard of different styles of American novels. He can equally speak the language of obscene similes and the high flight of hymnic metaphores…” (Ferenc Takács – Moving World)

The Hungarian voice of the Universe (Bookblog)

Get it. If you do not have any money, steal it. In a better case, ask for it for Christmas. And then start to be the main character of your life!(Cultureshore)