Chasing Homer facts for kids
Book cover
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| Author | László Krasznahorkai |
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| Original title | Mindig Homérosznak |
| Translator | John Batki |
| Illustrator | Max Neumann |
| Country | Hungary |
| Language | Hungarian |
| Publisher | Magvető |
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Publication date
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8 October 2019 |
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Published in English
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2 November 2021 |
| Pages | 96 |
| ISBN | 978-963-14-3879-6 |
Chasing Homer (Hungarian: Mindig Homérosznak) is a 2019 novella by the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai. It is about an unnamed man on the run from mysterious pursuers along the Adriatic coast. The book was published with original illustrations by Max Neumann and a music score by Miklos Szilveszter.
Plot
The story is told by an unnamed man who says that neither past nor future exist, only the present. The only detail revealed about his past is that he has studied "Old High German and Ancient Persian and Latin and Hebrew" as well as "Mandarin and Japanese of the Heian era". He is on the run from men who want to kill him, but the identities and motives of the pursuers are never explained. The man describes his survival techniques and episodes where he nearly was caught, but got away by hiding or moving in an unexpected direction. Along with the chase stories are musings on subjects such as experiments on mice, mathematics and crowd manipulation. The man's travels along the Adriatic coast takes him to a guided tourist trip on the island of Mljet in Croatia, which according to local legend is the island of Calypso in Homer's Odyssey.
Publication
Magvető published Chasing Homer in Hungarian as Mindig Homérosznak on 8 October 2019. Each of the 19 chapters comes with an original illustration by Max Neumann and a track from a percussion-based soundtrack composed by Miklos Szilveszter, accessible through a QR code at the chapter's start. The book was translated to English by John Batki and published by New Directions Publishing on 2 November 2021.
