Lázár: A Novel by Nelio Biedermann

An Epic Gothic Family Saga That Sweeps Through a Century of Turmoil

In Lázár: A Novel, astonishing young author Nelio Biedermann (born 2003) delivers a masterful, haunting multigenerational tale inspired by his own family history.

At the turn of the 20th century, in a grand estate beside a dark, menacing forest in Hungary, the aristocratic Lázár family welcomes a strange child: Lajos von Lázár — a boy with translucent skin and water-blue eyes who looks nothing like his kin. From this eerie beginning, the novel follows the Lázárs across decades of glory, madness, war, and revolution.

Spanning the final days of the Habsburg Empire, two World Wars, Hungary’s alliance with Nazi Germany, Soviet occupation, and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, Lázár weaves the intimate lives of one declining noble family into the blood-soaked tapestry of 20th-century Central Europe.

With gothic atmosphere, dreamlike prose, and unflinching emotional depth, Biedermann explores themes of inheritance, shame, resilience, and the inescapable weight of history. This ambitious debut — already an international sensation and bestseller in Europe — has been hailed as “exquisite and masterly” and “astonishing… disturbingly dreamlike.”

Perfect for fans of sweeping historical fiction, gothic family sagas, and literary epics like The Leopard, Buddenbrooks, or The Radetzky March.