Mario Szenessy (14 September 1930 in Veliki Bečkerek, Yugoslavia (today Zrenjanin, Serbia) – 11 October 1976 in Pinneberg, Germany) was a Hungarian-German author, translator, and literary critic.

[1] When Szenessy’s books failed to gain a wider audience, he began to write critiques and translations, and eventually decided to become qualified as a librarian.

[2] Szenessy wrote in the epic tradition of Thomas Mann, his literary role model, and his first book received highly favorable critiques.

[4] He always tried to popularize East-European literature in Germany; especially the Hungarian authors György Konrád and Tibor Déry he made more familiar with translations as well as a monograph.

[2] In his novel Lauter falsche Pässe (1971), Szenessy stylized the image of the typical entertainment novel by treating the genre in a sarcastic fashion, thus transferring it into a work of art.