Lázár with Nelio Biedermann
Wed 25 Mar 2026
7:00pm at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, 14-15 John St, Bath, BA1 2JL
All tickets include 15% off any books purchased on the night, a glass of wine or soft drink, author talk, Q&A and signing.
Other ways to book:
Email books@mrbsemporium.com, call 01225 331155 or pop into the shop at 14-15 John Street, Bath. BA1 2JL.
“Lázár is an exquisite and masterly pronouncement that a gifted young writer walks among us” – Patti Smith
Swiss author Nelio Biedermann joins us to discuss his debut novel, Lázár (translated by Jamie Bulloch) which is already setting him on the path to becoming an international literary phenomenon at the age of just twenty-two. It has been a huge bestseller in Germany and Switzerland, and won the German Booksellers Prize as voted for by independent bookshops across the country.
Lázár is a sweeping epic inspired by Nelio’s own family history, taking the reader from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Hungarian National Uprising of 1956. With its air of timeless wisdom, it reads like rediscovered classic, with nods to Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Our booksellers Nic and Tom M have already been blown away by Nelio’s talents, and we’re incredibly excited to welcome him to Mr B’s.
This event is programmed as part of the Curious Minds Festival: A Festival to Ignite Ideas.
Can’t make it to the event? Order a signed & dedicated copy here.
About the book:
The snow of the dying century still lay on the edge of the dark forest when Lajos von Lázár, the translucent child with water-blue eyes, first glimpsed the man he would believe to be his father for his whole life and beyond.
Lajos von Lázár is brought into this world with the dawn of the new century, and his birth is both a miracle and a curse, his true patrimony a secret he will never know. The Lázárs have ruled their Hungarian lands for generations. In their ancient castle by the edge of a dark forest that compels all who enter it to madness, they succumb to every vice and live only to satiate their desires. But the old order is crumbling, and the days of the Hapsburg Monarchy are numbered.
When Lajos inherits, they at last have a baron who can reignite the old splendours, but not even his abilities are proof against the ravages of war and occupation. It will fall to his children – a boy who talks to shadows and a girl who eschews her blue blood – to find a way to stand against oppression and take the first faltering steps towards freedom.
“A truly great writer steps onto the stage” – Daniel Kehlmann
About the author: Nelio Biedermann, born in 2003, grew up on Lake Zurich. His paternal family is of Hungarian nobility; his grandparents fled to Switzerland in the 1950s. Biedermann studied German and film studies at the University of Zurich. His novel Lázár will be published in more than twenty countries.
