"Miklós Vámos’s Apák könyve (published by Ab Ovo) that appeared in 2000 is one of the most outstanding pieces of literature of which over 100.000 copies have been sold.
""I intended to create a novel, that allows me to put down my pen for a longer period of time. This book is my farewell to the 20th century, presumably the longer part of my life.""
Apák könyve is a saga. It tells about 12 generations - mainly about the first-borns. It’s a 300-year journey in Hungarian time and space, in Hungarian history and fate, and also in the Hungarian tongue, as the language of the history that starts in the 18th century is gradually growing younger, adapting to the storyline.
The album published by NarRator Records is the musical version of Apák könyve. The songs that were created based on the literary piece not only reflect the style of the saga, but tell about the thousand faces of the father-son relationship. In order to achieve a plastic, sensitive representation the words of the songs were written by lyric writers.
Similarly to the 12 sections of the book, the album contains 12 songs each written by Péter Gerendás, the renowned performer who has been awarded the Liszt Prize, the Jenő Huszka Prize and the Emerton Prize. Miklós Vámos and Péter Gerendás have been old friends - just like the artists who undertook to write the lyrics of the 12 songs. Just a few writers and titles of the poems on the album: Géza Bereményi ("Váratlan lány"), János Bródy ("Harctéri fénykép"), György Faludy ("Újszülött fiamhoz"), György Fekete ("Békeidőben"), Attila Horváth ("Apám képeskönyve"), Orsolya Karafiáth ("Utolsó nyaralás"), Dusán Sztevanovity ("Betűk a porban").
Well-known musicians and artists also contributed to the album; we can listen to Miklós Benedek tell a poem, and Gábor Presser play the accordion.
The album is not only the quality music version of the original and a ""popularising"" of literature, but - thanks to the teamwork of performers, song and lyric writers - also an outstanding piece of work of contemporary Hungarian art."