Ferenc Karinthy

Ferenc Karinthy (June 2, 1921 – February 29, 1992) was a Hungarian novelist, playwright, journalist, editor and translator, as well as a water polo champion.

Spring Comes to Budapest was the first of Karinthy's novels to be translated into English (Corvina Press, 1964).

Epepe, written in 1970, is the most well-known of Karinthy's novels to be translated into English, appearing as Metropole in 2008.

[3] This essentially Kafkaesque tale follows the travails of Budai, a linguist who steps off a plane expecting to be in Helsinki but finds himself in a sprawling and densely populated metropolis whose residents speak an unknown and unintelligible language.

With no route home apparent, Budai spends his days trying to learn what he can about the city and the language but is frustrated at every turn.