On László Krasznahorkai’s “Herscht 07769”

Herscht 07769, the latest novel by Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, newly minted Nobel Prize recipient, was only written after he promised that Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming was his last. Despairing at the waning social utility and cachet of the novel, Krasznahorkai aspired to write a book on Bach, which fell through in the course when he encountered a gigantic man in Bach’s home state of Thuringia.