January 3, 1985. The announcement comes over the tele-

screen: Big Brother is dead. His empire, Oceania, has been

defeated in a disastrous air battle and is no more. Only two

great powers remain: Eurasia and Eastasia. Behind the scenes

Big Sister (Big Brother s widow) struggles with the Thought

Police and the army for power, while elsewhere the winds of

reform sweep through the remnants of Oceania.

Everywhere, under the bitingly humorous hand of Gy6rgy

Dalos, George Orwell s chilling world of 1984 seems to be experi-

encing a thaw, as Orwell s tortured lovers Smith and Julia,

O Brien the Thought Policeman, Ampleforth the hack poet,

and Syme the cynical philologist come alive again. However,

when the thaw becomes a revolution as the proles get involved,

the now-friendly neighboring empire Eurasia steps in to ~restore

orded

If this scenario reminds you of anything, that s no surprise.

Gyorgy Dalos is a child of post-Stalinist Hungary, and no one

could have been better placed to write such an incredibly in-

genious successor to Orwelrs prophetic novel of the cold war,

a hilarious international roman E clef f~ for today s world.

Gy6rgy Dalos, born in Hungary in 1943, studied at Moscow

University from 1962 to 1967. He was put on trial in his own

country in 1968 for "Maoist" activity, expelled from the

Hungarian Communist Party, dismissed from work, and put

under police surveillance. He makes his living as a translator and

also has published a collection of his poems. Just as Orwell s orig-

inal 1984 could not be published in Hungary, so this book could

not. It has come out, however, in German, French, and EngEsh

editions.

道洛什•久尔吉（Dalos György）：匈牙利著名作家,历史学家。1943年出生于布达佩斯一个犹太家庭,60年代赴莫斯科研读历史,1968年因“毛派分子案”被禁止发表作品长达19年,70年代参加匈牙利民主化运动,80年代以后在不来梅、维也纳和柏林等地从事文化、新闻与出版工作,现任柏林匈牙利文化研究所所长,居住于柏林。

由于其独特阅历,写作主题几乎都聚焦于冷战时期的东欧社会,特别是东欧知识分子的精神生活,代表作是《1985》和《来自未来的客人：安娜•阿赫玛托娃和以赛亚•伯林》。小说《1985》写于1981年,1982年在西柏林出版,引起轰动,随后出版的英法美日各版本反响巨大,1990年才在匈牙利正式出版。

曾获得多项大奖,如2000年的匈牙利共和国总统金奖,2006年匈牙利共和国十字勋章。2010年荣获莱比锡书展奖,被表彰为“最能代表欧洲精神历史的中欧人”。