Author: András Cserna-Szabó
Original title: Zerkó – Attila törpéje
Title in English: Zerco – Attila’s dwarf
Year of publication: 2022
Publisher: Helikon
Number of pages: 412
The hero of the novel is a real historical character, the dwarf jester of Attila the Hun’s court. We know he was born in Northern Africa, he had Moorish origins and he lived also in Byzantium. But what we didn’t know until the publication of András Cserna-Szabó’s book, is that he owed his adventurous life to his extra-sized penis. In the footsteps of Mika Waltari and Umberto Eco, Cserna-Szabó depicts a very important era of the european history: the last century of the Roman Empire. Told by a dwarf in a Cypriot tavern for a cup of wine.
The novel written in a playful but sometimes heart-gripping style, is a masterpiece of the Hungarian historical literature.