1. Book Reviews
Agnes Nemes Nagy : Between
Chris Murray
"I have no serious doubt," observed George Szirtes in his Introduction to The Night of Akhenaton, a
selection of her poetry, "that Ágnes Nemes Nagy is one of the great indispensable poets of the twentieth
century." Agnes Nemes Nagy (19221991) was a Hungarian poet, author, political writer and activist,
whose life, as for so many of her generation, was defined by the Second World War, and particularly
by the friends she knew who died in Auschwitz. Between by Agnes Nemes Nagy and translated by
Hugh Maxton comprises the largest translated collection of Nagy’s work into English, and is published
by Dedalus in Dublin and Corvina in Budapest.
Angels are always terrifying in Nagy and often allied to tree and branch symbols. Her imagery in general
is often 'offcentre'; she wrote about the process of writing as “I think it is the duty of the poet to
obtain citizenship for an increasing horde of nameless emotions”.