Menyhért Lakatos


Menyhért Lakatos was a Hungarian Romani writer.
Since 1988 he was President of the Hungarian Romani Cultural Association.
His most famous book, Füstös képek is a novel based on personal experience, set in World War II. It is a bildungsroman that shows life in a Roma village in Northeast Hungary, from 1940 until the German occupation of the country in 1944 when Roma people were put into death camps. While filled with amusing anecdotes, a petty criminal subplot, and adolescent eroticism, it portrays dehumanization of Romani in the society.
The Lakatos Menyhért School in Budapest is named in his honour.

Books

  • 1975: Füstös képek
  • *Bulgarian: Окадени картини, 1977
  • *German: Bitterer Rauch. Verlag Volk und Welt. Berlin 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982
  • *French: Couleur de fumée : une épopée tzigane, Paris, Actes Sud, 1986.
  • *English: The Color of Smoke: An Epic Novel of the Roma, 2015,
  • 1975: Angárka és Busladarfi
  • 1979: A hét szakállas farkas
  • 1979: A paramisák ivadékai
  • 1981: Az öreg fazék titka
  • 1981: Csandra szekere
  • *German: Csandras Karren. Zigeunergeschichten. Volk und Welt, Berlin 1984
  • 1982: Akik élni akarta
  • 1995: Hosszú éjszakák meséi
  • *German: Märchen der langen Nächte. Roma-Märchen. Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2004, 1999
  • 1998: A titok
  • 1999: Tenyérből mondtál jövendőt

Awards

Significant awards include: