Lázár

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Lázár is an epic that traces the decline of a family alongside the collapse of an empire. How did this vast historical scope affect your reading experience? Did you find it more compelling than family sagas set in a more limited timeframe, such as Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks?

2. Which character’s story resonated with you the most, and why? Was there a particular moment in their journey that you found especially powerful or memorable?

3. The novel closes with Pista and Eva on a train heading toward an unknown future in Zurich. How did this ending make you feel? Did you interpret it as a moment of hope, loss, or something more ambiguous?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. The Lázár family is haunted by inherited trauma, secrets, and expectations. Thinking about your own life, in what ways have family stories or history influenced your identity or the choices you’ve made?

2. After his father’s death, Lajos dedicates himself to restoring the family’s businesses. Have you ever felt a strong drive to either live up to or completely break away from the legacy or expectations of your family? What did that experience look like for you?

3. Eva finds a path to resilience by secretly reading banned authors like Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir. Can you recall a book, an author, or an idea that fundamentally changed your perspective or helped you navigate a difficult time in your life?

4. Throughout the story, characters often feel powerless in the face of massive historical events. Think about a time when you felt caught up in a large-scale event or social change. How did you navigate your role within it?

5. Sándor uses a rigid, almost militaristic, routine to keep his anxieties at bay. What role do rituals or routines play in your own life? Do you find them comforting and grounding, or do they ever feel restrictive?

6. Pista undertakes a rigorous exercise program to build a physical armor against the emotional pain of being bullied. What are some of the ways you’ve seen people, including yourself, build defenses to protect themselves from a challenging environment?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. The novel portrays the human impact of major 20th-century events, from the fall of the Hapsburg Empire to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. How did following one family’s story change or deepen your understanding of this tumultuous period in European history?

2. Lajos’s complicity in the deportation of Pécs’s Jewish population is a central moral crisis in the book. What does his rationalization, born of fear and a desire to protect his family, reveal about how ordinary individuals can become participants in systemic evil? Where do you see similar dynamics at play today?

3. The story concludes with Pista and Eva becoming refugees, fleeing their homeland for an uncertain future. In what ways does their experience reflect or differ from the stories of refugees today?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. What is the significance of the recurring motif of Lajos’s water-blue eyes? How does this physical trait function as a constant, visible reminder of the family’s secrets and the theme of inescapable lineage?

2. Think about the dark forest that borders the Lázár estate. How does this setting evolve from a physical landscape into a powerful symbol of the subconscious and the untamable forces that ultimately consume the family?

3. Biedermann frequently shifts between the Lázár family’s intimate dramas and major historical events, even including interludes about Stalin. Did this technique enhance your understanding of the characters’ fates?

4. Compare the three generations of Lázár men: Sándor, Lajos, and Pista. In what ways does Pista seem doomed to repeat the failures of his father and grandfather? What choices does he make that ultimately allow him to break the cycle?

5. The text of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Night Pieces plays a key role in Imre’s life. Have you read Hoffmann’s work or other Gothic tales? How does Biedermann use this specific literary allusion to deepen the novel’s exploration of inherited trauma and psychological collapse?

6. Mária, Lilly, and Eva represent three very different experiences of womanhood. How do their individual journeys illustrate the constraints and possibilities for women across the novel’s historical sweep?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Imagine you’re curating a small museum exhibit based on Lázár. What five objects would you choose to represent the family’s journey from aristocratic power to their final status as refugees? What would each object signify?

2. If you were to write an epilogue for the novel, where would you find Pista and Eva 20 years after their arrival in Switzerland? What kind of lives have they built, and how has their relationship with each other and their past evolved?

3. The Lázár manor is a central presence in the book. If you were a casting director for a film adaptation, which real-world castle or estate would you choose to portray the manor, and how would you use lighting and set design to reflect its changing role from a place of grandeur to one of decay and ghosts?