On January 22nd 200, I had the pleasure of meeting Gyorgy Dragoman from Hungary to chat with him about his first novel 'The White King'. I found him to be very very shy but he soon got into the swing of things and had much to say about life in Transylvania and his hero Djata.

VW - Gyorgy Dragoman welcome to the Bookfiend's Kingdom.

GD - Thank you for having me

VW - ‘The White King' is quite something I have to say. I got halfway through the book and felt I couldn't read anymore because I felt so depressed! (laughter)

GD - It does strike us from time to time!

VW - It is quite an extraordinary book but I'm glad to have finished it because but my most favourite chapter is PACT. I loved Pact because of Pickaxe and how he interacts with Djata, who is, dare I say the hero of the book or most certainly the central character of the book; which seems to me to be Vignette short stories. It's not like one long story where you're following through, like in a murder or a travel log. It is a travel of some sort, but it's an emotional one, it's quite a roller coaster but it is so violent, in speech and in action. Is it from your own personal experience?

GD - Yes it is but luckily, my childhood was not this difficult, and I don't think I could be as brave as Djata. I have had my share of adventures but they were not as extreme as Djata's. That is how it was, you take a piece of reality and turn and twist it around until it becomes a piece of a story. What I wanted to do was write stories of adventure but some of them work quite well but some of them are extremely incoherent. I think this is due to fact that this story is really about the adventure.

VW - You start it at the beginning when Djata is eleven years old, when we see his father taken away but at the end he is 13 years old and it is two years on that we see the father at the end.

GD - About twelve and half I think; we see his twelfth birthday which comes around at the middle of the book. And another 6 months pass till the end of the book. I think about 18 months for the whole book it is very carefully chronologically done. It begins in May and then it ends in January about 18 months after the start. So he was, actually twelve and half at the end of it.

VW - He starts off; I don't know whether to call him an innocent, but by the end of the book I don't know with the things that he goes through. Right at the beginning we see the way the football coach is teaching the children how to play and he becomes violent; and there is the boy who he hits really hard and I didn't know whether the child was dead, but he is not! The Children don't want to be in the football team. They seem to want to, but don't because of the pressure being put on them. Because the coach is being pressurized by the higher up people in the government or the secret service, everyone is being lent on by someone else. It's Horrible!!

GD - You could call the book the greatest socialist mechanics so what you see is how socialist pressure goes down the line, and social pressure extends to violence. Djata succumbs to the pressure and is still fairly innocent, because he still knows he has a father and therefore still thinks he has some protection. His father has not come home but he then realises, when his eyes are opened that no-one can protect you in the world against anyone. What he discovers by the end of the book almost certainly is that this is a totalitarian state and no one is protected and it's a free for all. Not even the rules are set, so most of his life is about fighting - yes most of his life is about fighting the rules and leadership then in such a way he can still win in the game.

VW - I think the war in the cornfield/maize field where the boys, the two gangs are fighting each other, the two street gangs, that was something else, it was quite a hard language that they use. It's not swearing it is the emotion of it all and the fear. The level of fear is very intense.

GD - Yes and no. Yes everyone is always afraid because no-one is killed at this point of the system, you can never be free. So what is interesting for me as I write about this boy, despite all the hardships and all the pressure, he still manages to escape into himself, into his inner-self, into his fantasy's and sometimes you are not sure what exactly is happening within his fantasy. It is also about crossing boundaries and he has a hard time. But he has to learn to cross boundaries and control them. But it is still a big game in life and a test for everyone in this world.

VW - Horrible!

GD - What I really wanted to do but can never have a go as a writer and achieve, was to show moments of tenderness in spite of the world around him.

VW - Pickaxe had sewn Djata's sleeve back on, I have to say I just adore that chapter (Pact) because it goes from one extreme to the other.

GD - It was the most difficult for me to write because it goes from one extreme emotionally to another. It was very difficult for me. It was very real because it is one of the most violent chapters in the book and yet it is one of the most painful because you see one of the most terrible characters turn into a father figure. It takes a great stance and changes the whole relationship. It is one of the most poignant moments of love in this book and it is a real issue.

VW - It was, it was just in my head seeing this person and also with the ID card that was just so awesome, it gives hope, real hope for the future especially with someone with such violent tendencies. Such violent tendencies who, can up with such tenderness, it seems that he wants to be loved as well.

GD - Yes I think, even such a person who is this violent and distraught can even though he has been destroyed, and we don't know how; but he only has half a face; can be a person who fears for others and what you discover is that he does have a world of his own where he is supreme, where he can perform something which is magical. Where he lives, in a cave he has birds that he has trained to sing, but their freedom is tangible and you get to experience it first hand as well. The monster of a person is not such a monster but a person who is also affectionate and a lovable character. Who goes to great lengths to helping Djata, and tries to become a father to him.

VW - Oh Yes 100% when he was talking to the birds - he says they weren't really singing to each other they were really saying ‘Get off my patch.' I love that bit as well. But I think Djata's grandfather who was quite high up was again seen in different ways. Someone whom could be quite violent himself, because he taught Djata how to kill a beautiful black cat, whether it's for food or just for the hell of it, and then we jump right to the end where we've got his funeral and I don't know if it was the girlfriend or the mistress who comes up and wails over the coffin and saying that Djata's' grandmother was not the grandfather's love it was Yvonne. I thought well! (laughter) There was Djata taking all this in and his father is bought in. That's such an incredible moment so poignant. Did you write that bit from personal experience?

GD - Not that part. No, no I have had my share of adventures and yes my father was taken away by the secret service but he was returned the same day. He, my father was not destroyed by them like Djata's father but it did happen to other people I knew. So I have a few friends whose parents did go to prison, and then stay awhile, and when they came back they are not the same person as before they went away. This is how I can share this in the book because I spent my childhood in Transylvania, the detail that is in the book and its times. You don't really understand what is in the book only what you know of your homeland. Things might not always seem as are thought to be. We might trust people but who should we put our trust in them or us it is just remorse. But perhaps the reality and most of the stories in the book are based on remorse. Some are from my experiences but the rest are from stories, I have heard and more stories and the reactions and remorse gained from them. I spoke to no-one about those secret sources. But they are a reality.

VW - (Laugh) Right. That was funny especially about the power cut.

GD - Yes power cuts were part of our lives, we had them all the time with out any explanation, it happen all the time especially in the cinema and we could only watch North Korean, China and Russian Movies; Which are Socialist movies, they were all that was allowed. Then the power would go off and the director of the cinema would appear with a candle and approach us, then you would wait 20 minutes and if the power came on the movie would continue or you would go home!

VW - Did you get your money back?

GD - No

VW - That wasn't very fair!

GD - But fairness was not part of it. So this is how all the book was built to a certain degree. I was to experience each chapter. As I wrote each chapter, I wanted to experience each chapter separately. They were published separately and you can read them like that, out of chronological order. But - I wanted them to be read in the chronological order and that is the way that the book is set. When they were put in the book that is how I set them in time and structure and that was a good discipline for me. This gave me a greater voice, for the boy and he could cope much better the way I have set it.

VW - It is very powerful. What were your influences for writing this book?

GD - I don't know. I can not give a definitive reason. But I spent a lot of time reading and doing research - historical novels, and I have read a great number of writers some Russian and Hungarian and many others. There are also some very good Hungarian short story writers who helped. You cannot really name writers because they may think that you copy them.

VW - Do you think you are influenced by the books you are translating?

GD - Not always, what I would like to translate is not always possible, you have to translate what is given to you and sometimes that is difficult. It does not matter what you translate because translation is very helpful in teaching you how to write. I think that the best thing I can tell any young writer is to try his hand at translating. Because you can not get as close to any short story as you do as you translate. If you try to translate you have to try to understand the story and that really helps even if the translation is not that good. We did a translation of a story which was not good but it gave me a great knowledge of construction of the story.

VW - Why did you not write your book in English?

GD - I don't think my English is good enough for that I think you can only translate to the language you speak. It doesn't matter because your mother tongue is easier. But I have to contradict myself because I did have to do some of my stories, because there was a deadline and the Russians could not do it on time. But I don't think my English is that good although I have been learning English for 30 years.

VW - You did very well!

GD - Thank you - yes - I wrote loads, I majored in English. But all my friends are Hungarian and so that is the language of my speech. I don't have many opportunities to speak in English. I will need to spend years in England to really speak well in it. So that means I could not translate my book so well. But I was able to help my translator, he was very patient with me, and I correct him, although you can never correct a translator! What I did was correct with what I was trying to say. He understood what I was meaning and then it was very helpful. Most translators do not like the authors to interfere, because if is their translation they do not like their integrity misplaced, but my translator was pleased to spend time with me to make the story the way I wanted it. Most translators want to work on their own without the author because translating is almost as hard as writing. Sometimes harder, and sometimes easier.

VW - Yes - Gives you Brain-Ache!!!

GD - It does, it does. It's very hard to be a translator, because you are in the shadow of the author. You are not usually mentioned or if you are then you are shown and mentioned then you are noticed and appreciated for what you have done. That is the most you can hope for.

VW - But you are known, you have done this work.

GD - Yes, that is the best you can expect, so that is why it is one of the most beautiful but also the most difficult for writers; it also becomes the most useful part of their work.

VW - I love the way you use Djata to speak the book in the first person, and when somebody comes to speak he says the speech for you. Not always in parenthesis' or speech marks. Then you go back and read the passage again and suddenly you understand it - ‘Oh yes, that's how its meant' - It is very interesting way of writing I've not come across that style of writing before.

GD - I don't want to rig the voice so I wanted everything to be spoken by Djata. This is a monologue and even the dialogues are seen as intermit relations and describing the dialogues and even when he quotes someone he always speaks the same way. That is why it can be tiresome because he just speak and speak and speak with his fast and breathing speech.

VW - I didn't find the book tiresome at all. You can not say that about your book it is not tiresome.

GD - But it can get you, this sort of way, writing some how you have to get into the pace and the rhythm. But his pattern of breath becomes his method through every story.

VW - But I liked it. I really enjoyed it very much. So what of the future, because you are writing a new book now, similar or something different?

GD - I'm looking at two projects' but there is the story of a younger boy who is seven years old and the story takes place over just three months which is similar. But it is more hopeful - yes - and in a different light. The other project is, is that I am writing the stories of in my memories from when I was a young child. I have told stories and written short stories since I was five years old and I want to share them.

VW - I really look forward to those how wonderful. But you were born in Transylvania and we think of there as the home to vampires!

GD - When I lived in Transylvania, we never heard of vampires this is all a lot of myth.

VW - Laughter!!

GD - But in ‘England and the United States everyone read of vampires, and they think of Transylvania. But I left Transylvania in 1988 and did not return for a long while but now there are tourist attractions of vampires because there were demands for them, and the demands are being met! So now it is arranged that there are souvenirs of vampires and the tourists are having their needs met in many ways! We never had vampires until then!

VW - How interesting. Now your name Dragoman is very prophetic.

GD - It can be said so, it comes from Transylvania although we were Romanian, but Dragoman comes from the Arabic and can be found in many languages if you open up your dictionary it is in there and means Guide or Interpreter!

VW - Which is what you are!

GD - Yes I worked as an interpreter but never as a guide.

VW Well Gyorgy than you so much for your time I really appreciated it.

GD - Thank you.