A popular language primer in Hungary during the 1970s ran from Ablak (window) to Zsiráf (giraffe). Péter Zilahy’s ‘Picture Dictionary for the Over Fives’ borrows that alphabetic structure to investigate the chaotic history of central Europe during the 20th century. Zilahy grew up in Hungary during the 1970s under a dictatorship that already knew it was absurd but didn’t know what to do about it, but his principal subject here (if a book as restlessly digressive as this one can be said to have a principal subject) is Serbia and the rise and fall of Slobodan Milošević – Zihaly took part in the massive anti-Milošević demonstrations in Belgrade in 1996. The author’s own photographs and a variety of ‘found’ graphics provide an interesting visual counterpoint to a fascinating and unusual take on turbulent times. Lawrence Norfolk writes in his foreword ‘Péter Zilahy is just the vagabond polymath the New Europe needs. Don’t wait. Climb aboard the rollercoaster today. Read The Last Window-Giraffe as an elaborate, erudite, gut-wrenching belly-laugh at everything that went wrong and all the people who failed to fix it.’

Anthem Press | hardback |ISBN: 9781843312840