A noble Hungarian family declines through the decades, from aristocratic decadence to impoverishment and flight - by a young author writing with the assurance of an old master.

"Lazar is an exquisite and masterly pronouncement that a gifted young writer walks among us" Patti Smith

"A truly great writer steps onto the stage" Daniel Kehlmann

"Propulsive, twisting and spell-binding. Lazar is a bold, intricate accomplishment" Lucy Steeds

The snow of the dying century still lay on the edge of the dark forest when Lajos von Lazar, the translucent child with water-blue eyes, first glimpsed the man he would believe to be his father for his whole life and beyond.

The Lazars have ruled their Hungarian lands for generations. In their ancient castle by the edge of a forest that compels all who enter it to madness, they succumb to every vice and live only to satiate their desires. But the old order is crumbling, and the days of the Habsburg Monarchy are numbered. When Lajos von Lazar inherits, they at last have a baron who can reignite the old splendours, but not even his abilities are proof against the ravages of war and occupation. It will fall to his children - a boy who talks to shadows and a girl who eschews her blue blood - to find a way to stand against oppression and take the first faltering steps towards freedom.

A sweeping epic, taking the reader from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Hungarian National Uprising of 1956, Lazar would be a phenomenal achievement for a writer of any age. With its air of timeless wisdom, it reads like rediscovered classic, making it all the more remarkable that it was written when the author was just twenty-one years old.

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

Details

ISBN13: 9781529445343
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 304
Edition:
Publication Date: 24 Mar 2026
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 23.2(H)x15.2(L)x2.6(W)371
Weight (gm): 371

Author Biography

Nelio Biedermann, born in 2003, grew up on Lake Zurich. His paternal family is of Hungarian nobility; his grandparents fled to Switzerland in the 1950s. Biedermann studied German and film studies at the University of Zurich. His novel Lazar will be published in more than twenty countries.

Reviews

An astonishing book - a multi-generational family story filled with deeply original characters and gripping scenes, at times realistic, at times disturbingly dreamlike. This novel would be an event in any case. But the fact that its author has only just reached adulthood turns its publication into a thunderclap. A truly great writer steps onto the stage, in full possession of his powers -- Daniel Kehlmann
The new magician . . . A magnificent novel . . . The splendour and misery of an entire era * Die Zeit *
A first-class page-turner . . . the most astonishing discovery of the season * Süddeutsche Zeitung *
A vivid, strange story that sustains its tension * Dazed (Most Anticipated Novels of 2026) *
L√°z√°r proves worthy of the commotion: a keenly observed work that blends youthful verve with a seasoned wisdom... With Biedermann, fiction becomes the space in which both the vast sweep of history and the intimate, corporeal realities of those living through it can be apprehended, rendering the repetition of tragedy not abstract or statistical, but painfully, vividly human * European Literature Network *
Gothic and fairytale-esque, it's a definite page-turner * Service 95 *
Biedermann not only shows plenty of skill as a novelist, but wisdom well beyond his years. His imaginative capacity and desire to engage with both the discomforts of history and the cornucopia of dead authors who inspired him gives you - at least, it gave me - a cynicism-killing hope for the future of literature. L√°z√°r, above all, shows that the drab realism of too many millennials doesn't cut it for the generation now coming of age. To Gen Z novelists, that style is past its sell-by date. This is the future now. * Telegraph *
Fabulous is the word for this twisted modern fairytale * The Times *
Magic glints and mystery drifts like smoke through this epic story of a dynasty stripped of wealth and dignity . . . A deserved international sensation * SAGA Magazine *
Captivating and vivid, creating an intriguing atmosphere of secrets, repression and furtive but robust sexuality . . Anyone who reads this novel will be intrigued to see what its precocious author does next * Guardian *