Description: Peter Zilahy's The Last Window-Giraffe takes its title from the fact that the first and last letters of the Hungarian alphabet match the first letters for the words "window" and "giraffe." This genre-defying book, originally written in Hungarian, has been translated into twenty-two languages and is often cited as one of the inspirations for the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine.
On the surface, this autobiographical fiction rendered by Zilahy's incisive x-ray vision--a heady mix of history, memoir, and farce of the highest order--is about the protests in Belgrade in 1996. But viewed through a wider lens it serves up the absurdity of all manner of authoritarianism that resonates as much today as it first did upon publication in 1999.Review Quotes: "In these bittersweet pages you will find the fall of the regimes, and the last twenty years of Eastern Europe." --Rolling Stone Magazine
"Not only a great piece of literature but a visual feast as well." --Julian Evans, BBC "Peter Zilahy has written a book that almost defies description." --The Verb, BBC Radio 3