Winner of the Sandor Marai prize in Hungary, Gyorgy Dragoman's The White King was originally plucked out of the slush pile by the Paris Review interns which published a chapter from it last fall which is why last night The Paris Review, Houghton Mifflin and The Gernert Company toasted Gyorgy Dragoman and the publication of his novel. Dragoman, who was invited by Salman Rushdie to participate in the PEN World Voices Festival has had his novel translated into 25 languages so far. The Tennessean calls it "stunning, a debut novel as assured as The Catcher In The Rye," and this Sunday we'll see what the Washington Post Book World has to say about this great coming of age novel.

Attending the event last night were Gregory Dragoman pictured above(left) with his Houghton publicity team: Director, Lori Glazer and Associate, Emer Flounders. George Plimpton made a brief appearance but his Paris Review staff stayed to enjoy the wine and cheese.
Also in the house were Sharon Male and Allison Takeda from Parade Magazine (left).

Pheasants take flight, interns make good, white wine runs out and more pictures after the jump.

On first entering the downtown offices of the Paris Review I noticed these Pheasants. Fortunately, they're not alive and rumor has it they're from Plimpton's personal collection.

White King translator Paul Olchvary (right) and his friend Milklos Solyon

Former Paris Review Interns who plucked Dragoman out of the slush pile: Jessica Ferri (FSG), Ryan McIlvain (author) and Evan McGarvey (Gernert & Co.).

Paris Review's managing editor Radhika Jones, deputy editor Matt Weiland and development director Catherine Steindler.

Dragoman with his agent Chris Parris-Lamb (Gernert co.)
and editor Anjali Singh.

Ben Steinberg, Assistant editor at Harpercollins hams it up with Rebecca Waugh from Listening Library and former Houghton colleagues Emer Flounders, Candice Finn.

Sandy Meehan from the Review's board of directors with Dragoman and David Wagner.

Hmmm, someone really likes Umberto Eco.

If you didn't get a chance to hear Dragoman during his PEN appearances, you can listen to the fascinating May 2nd Leonard Lopate interview. After a minute of listening, you'll be able to ignore the stutter.
What's nice is the support he's receiving for it:

Posted by: geoffry May 02, 2008 - 01:13PM
brooklyn
On a different subject, I'm so IMPRESSED that the author is conducting a radio interview with his stutter. I'm a stutterer myself and have resisted public speaking but Gyorgy has given me a new found confidence.

Thank you.