Upper West Side Philosophers Publishing

BELOW ZERO: A Play
(February 2017)

"Lajos Walder is [a] name you should know ..."
—DON PATERSON

"Walder (1913–1945) might be a little-known mid-20th century Hungarian poet, but that has little to do with his talent ... Nothing is too big or too small to be noticed, and this transcendence of self allows Walder to make grand gestures without sounding archaic or pompous ... Walder endows smallness with heavy meaning ..."
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Lajos Walder’s poetry, modern and urgent, committed to its craft, written against its own times, composed on the run, touched by personal and larger histories, is an example of the white-hot way poetry can emerge from a life."
—Kevin Brophy, TEXT

Available as an eBook at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Blio, and other fine eBook retailers.

Author: Lajos Walder

ISBN 978-1-935830-38-2 (print)
ISBN 978-1-935830-41-2 (ebook)

Set in a remote radio outpost in northern Quebec in 1942, Below Zero is a study in obsession, duplicity, aversion, infidelity, and psychological abuse to the point of murder ... people stuck together with no escape ... Written in early 1940s in Hungary, Below Zero is arguably the prototypical existential drama, anticipating Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit (1944), among other works.

Reviews
More details
Interviews

REVIEWS

"Walder (1913–1945) might be a little-known mid-20th century Hungarian poet, but that has little to do with his talent ... Nothing is too big or too small to be noticed, and this transcendence of self allows Walder to make grand gestures without sounding archaic or pompous ... Walder endows smallness with heavy meaning ..."

—Publishers Weekly

“Why might we want to read these poems from a young poet of the 1930s in Europe? Firstly, we have a chance to hear the voice of a poet apparently too dangerously outspoken to be allowed to be heard in his lifetime ... But most importantly, Lajos Walder’s poetry, modern and urgent, committed to its craft, written against its own times, composed on the run, touched by personal and larger histories, is an example of the white-hot way poetry can emerge from a life. This is an exciting book to read.”

—Kevin Brophy, Text

"Rarely have I been smitten by a poet, but in Lajos Walder (1913-1945) I have been swept off my feet. His [is] the art of a rare mind, who surveyed his times with an awareness as dark as Franz Kafka s and a humour as light as Milan Kundera's ..."

—Rachael Kohn, Australian Jewish News & ABC Radio National, Australia

"Lajos Walder has neither ancestor nor partner in Hungarian literature. He is a poet, without a doubt a lyricist through and through, yet one whose every line and every poetic breath is pure heresy, pure rebellion against accustomed forms of poetry."

—Gábor Thurzó

"Lajos Walder was the most credible voice to express the times between the two world wars. Without this artist s entirely individualistic voice, the overall picture of that period is incomplete."

—Géza Hegedüs

Translated by Agnes Walder
ISBN 978-1-935830-38-2 (print)
ISBN 978-1-935830-41-2 (ebook)
Publication Date: February 10, 2017

Set in a remote radio outpost in northern Quebec in 1942, Below Zero is a study in obsession, duplicity, aversion, infidelity, and psychological abuse to the point of murder ... Three people stuck together with no escape ... Written in early 1940s in Hungary, Below Zero is arguably the prototypical existential drama, anticipating Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit (1944), among other works.