The Book of Fathers

In this sprawling chronicle of the Csillag family, celebrated Hungarian author Vámos depicts the lives of 12 generations of men, each a first-born son, and in the process offers a whimsical 400-year history of his native country. Each son is graced with the ability to envision events from the past as well as the future; these gifted men maintain a “Book of Fathers,” which is simultaneously a mundane and inspired record of the family, containing everything from a list of songs and arias favored by one father to testaments about inheriting an heirloom. Each of the novel's 12 chapters is devoted to the life of a father as it plays out against Hungary's turbulent political context; one finds fortune in the wine industry, another is a brilliant gambler, another oversees a fancy shoe shop, another runs a glass factory and yet another is a master linguist. While the episodic structure can inspire a plodding feel, the book has many sublime moments, from meditations on the nature of time to a sly investigation of how words accumulate to form books. (Oct.)