A literary sensation in Hungary, György Spiró’s Captivity is both a sophisticated historical novel and a page-turner. Set in the tumultuous first century A.D., between the year of Christ’s death and the outbreak of the Jewish War, Captivity recounts the adventures of the feeble-bodied, bookish Uri, a young Roman Jew. Frustrated with his hapless son, Uri’s father sends the young man to the Holy Land to regain the family’s prestige. In Jerusalem, Uri is imprisoned by Herod and meets two thieves and (perhaps) Jesus before their crucifixion. Later, in cosmopolitan Alexandria, he undergoes a scholarly and sexual awakening—but must escape a pogrom. Returning to Rome at last, he finds an entirely unexpected inheritance. Equal parts Homeric epic, brilliantly researched Jewish history, and gripping adventure, Captivity is a tale of family, fate, and fortitude. Fans will be reminded of Robert Graves’ classics of Ancient Rome, I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Restless Books will publish the first English edition of this important, 1,100-page work in four installments in 2015. Reviews “György Spiró presents a theory in novelistic form about the interwovenness of religion and politics, lays bare the inner workings of power, and gives insight into the art of survival....This book reads easily and avidly like the greatest bestsellers while also going as deep as the greatest thinkers of European philosophy.” —Aegon Literary Award 2006 “A novel of education and a novel of adventure...with a vividness of detail that is stunning. A serious and sophisticated novel that is also engrossing and highly readable is a rare thing.” —Ivan Sanders, Columbia University Born in 1946 in Budapest, dramatist, novelist, and translator György Spiró has earned a reputation as one of postwar Hungary’s most prominent and prolific literary figures. He teaches at ELTE University of Budapest, specializing in Slavic literature. Tim Wilkinson gave up his job in the pharmaceutical industry to translate Hungarian literature and history. He is the primary translator of Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertesz. Wilkinson’s work on Kertész’s Fatelessness won the PEN/Book of the Month Club Translation Prize in 2005.