bAn inventive collection of stories by one of the most prominent and acclaimed writers in Hungary today.b piThe Birth of Emma K.i, a collection of twelve short stories rich with magic, introduces English-language readers to one of the most vibrant and original voices in contemporary Hungarian literature. Zsolt Lng's new collection opens with God sitting on a bench looking over Budapest later, a Hungarian man who has stumbled into a Romanian music theory class suddenly finds he is able to speak expertly about Hungarian composer Bla Bartok--and in perfect Romanian and even later, against all odds, the embryo of Emma fights for her future life from within the womb. Drifting between melancholic and witty, in sentences that are winding, subtle, and colloquial, Lng's stories are deeply rooted in Transylvanian culture and history. Reminiscent of the best writings of Irish modernist masters such as Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien, iThe Birth of Emma K.i presents an unforgettable collage of hu