Discover an exciting and entertaining novel and help bring Jenő Rejtő's Town of the Silent Revolvers, a Hungarian masterpiece dime novel to English readers by supporting a new model for literary translation.

"- And, what do you know about the dawn? As for the dawn at twilight? What?- asked the woman with restrained anger.

- The dawn is that part of a day - answered Benjamin Walter helpfully – when the rotating globe once again returns into the light of the sun.

- And, why am I just like the gibbous of the moon? - continued the lady her inquiry with the dispassionate objectivity of a suspicious schoolmaster at the final exams. - Why?

- Maybe it has something to do with overnutrition... - stammered the man. - But please, have a seat, Madam...

- And, what about the music of the spheres? The conductor of your heart? What about your forty dollars wristwatch? Impudent! - and without waiting for any other definitions the baby-face gibbous of the spheres slapped Pencroft in the face three times as hard that his hat flew from his hand to a nearby table. “

- Jenő Rejtő: Town of the Silent Revolvers

WHAT WE NEED & WHAT YOU GET

Your generous contribution for this campaign will help raise funds for the translation of a popular Hungarian novel, the Town of the Silent Revolvers into English.

The translator, Attila Szabo is deeply convinced, that Jenő Rejtő is one of the most entertaining writers of all time and his novels deserved to be known better.

He is also deeply convinced, that you deserve a copy of the Town of the Silent Revolvers, which is one of Jenő Rejtő's best novels.

Therefore our campaign's goals are:

• to translate this unique dime novel to English and publish it,
• to get you a copy of this novel,
• to raise $7500 for publishing costs.

If we don't make the full $7500, we will make the e-book first. But hopefully we will not only reach our goal, but we will easily surpass it. If you cannot help the campaign by funding, please help it by spreading the word about it.

THE BOOK – TOWN OF THE SILENT REVOLVERS

“It is awful how tight costume is another person's life to wear.”

The Town of the Silent Revolvers is a masterpiece parody of crime stories and western novels.

Tivald Pencroft and Benjamin Walter change identities. One of them wants to escape, the other perhaps looking for adventure. The whole business seems good. Everyone gets what he wanted.

After a decent plastic surgery, the former Tivald Pencroft finds his way to Benjamin Walter's hometown, Fillipon, the Town of the Silent Revolvers. The welcome is too warm to handle as a horrible secret poisoning the town. Morose faces, sneaking glances, teary-eyed women, angry mobs. Is it possible that our hero jumped from the frying pan into the fire?

His life is in constant danger and constant improvisation: he is beaten, shot at, a knife pointed at his throat, and everyone wants to know what does he know about the dawn, the music of spheres and Goethe... and most of all Probatbicol. He does not know anyone, does not understand anything - the only chance for survival is to swim with the tide and bluffing.

The results are amazing.

THE AUTHOR - JENŐ REJTŐ

Jenő Rejtő was a Hungarian journalist and writer. He was a master of dime novels and he is best known for his unique humour and for the stiff style of his writings.

Despite the nature of his books, he is widely read in Hungary and much appreciated by critics. It is a prevalent opinion that he lifted the genre of dime novels to the level of serious art.

Rejtő was born as Jenő Reich 1905 in Budapest, Hungary into a jewish family. He was 19 years old when he became a stage actor, but after some bad critics and a bad incident (he accidentally dropped one of the leading actors of the era on stage) he left for Berlin to learn acting. He ran out of his money in no time, so he left Berlin and started to travel Europe, taking any jobs available. He worked as a deck hand, as a fisherman, as a dancer and as a broker, just to mention a few. After two years of roaming, he volunteered to the French Foreign Legion. Rejtő soon became weary of military life and thanks to a friendly physician he could leave the Legion and returned to Europe.

He returned to Hungary in 1927 and became a successful stage writer. In 1934 he started to write dime novels, using the pseudonyms Gibson Lavery and P. Howard, as the readers of the dime novels preferred anglo-saxon writers.

His health began to decline in 1939. He spent much of his time in hospitals. When Hungary entered the Second World War in 1941, he was banned from publication by the anti-Semitic laws of the era. In October 1942 a nazi newspaper accused Rejtő of evading the Labour Service – which meant compulsory forced labour for Hungarian Jews and political adversaries of the Horthy regime on the Eastern Front – in Budapest. After that Rejtő was dragged off from his hospital room to the Eastern Front. He died in January 1943.

Today, Jenő Rejtő is one of the most popular Hungarian writers and his memory is kept alive in his homeland in numerous ways.

RISKS&CHALLENGES

Whilst it is sure that the translator is up to the task to translate this novel into English, there is no doubt that it will be a challenging task sometimes.

Attila Szabo is a Hungarian, living in Budapest. Therefore, he is not a native English speaker and he is not a professional writer or literary translator. He studied Political Science and worked as an entrepreneur in his whole life. He is just an enthusiast of Rejtő.

Rejtő used many idioms and idioms are hard to translate. That is why we chose this particular novel to translate. In the Town of the Silent Revolvers Rejtő used his trademark puns to a lesser extent as he did in his other novels because he used the situations and the circumstances of the characters to create comedy.

Enthusiasm is the reason the translator can overcome all risks&challenges in this project, as an enthusiast will always find a way to succeed.

We promise that all contributions go toward to translate and to publish the Town of the Silent Revolvers. However, your contributions are not refundable. Please see the Indiegogo Terms of Use for more details and support our campaign.

EXCERPT FROM FIRST CHAPTER

1.

- What a fine start for the next eighteen months - murmured Tivald 13th the Troubled as the detective clasped handcuffs on his wrists. In addition to that Tivald was requested to shut up, if possible.

- As you wish... - muttered Tivald resentfully because he did not like when people made such a big deal out of everything they do.

The detective told him that if he has the money, they can go to the police station by car.

- No way! Should I take you to the theater either?

The other detective drew his attention to some painful consequences if someone gets slapped in the face and to the fact that it is useless to collect slaps as that kind of capital can hardly mean any reasonable savings in his old days to guarantee a peaceful twilight of his life. Then, they grab Tivald 13th the Troubled's arms and led him through the populated streets of Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras.

The reader must be amazed that I mention a criminal with such numbering which usually precede the names of kings, to save a monarch from being mistaken for one of his predecessor of the same name. It is not comfortable to even imagine, what should we do with the late Louises of France without a decent numbering. But we shouldn't think that Tivald was the King of the Underworld. The underworld does not deal with the election of monarchs since the constitution, the legislation regarding the process of the election, the rule of law and public safety means real anarchy to them.

Tivald 13th the Troubled, as the name implies got easily and frequently in trouble. So they started to call him Thirteen besides the sobriquet Troubled, because thirteen is known to be an unlucky number.

Probably because it is a rather low number.

Even Troubled himself did not know the reason why he was named Tivald.

Why did a locksmith with a beautiful voice from Devonshire give his son the name Tivald in baptism? This is one of the mysteries which await to the shrinks of the coming ages.

Anyway how was Tivald's bad luck manifested in his every day life?

Imagine Tivald 13th the Troubled as the world's most prominent yegg, whose name was pronounced with sincere appreciation in professional criminal circles. When he was mentioned, all nearby police officer started looking for him in such a hurry that you should think that they wanted to congratulate him for his speciality; the famous and unequaled lotus-shaped cold cutting. He was clever, cautious, careful, quick, smart and yet ...

Let's say he broke into the Trildey and Co. company. A beautiful, first class work. A fabulous getaway. Sixty thousand dollar booty. In no time, he was two hours walk away from the crime scene and he was whistling cheerfully.

Then he was hit by a car.

The bystanders were amused when he was put into the ambulance and hundred-dollar banknotes flying around him like leaves in autumn around a giant roadside money tree.

But they were not leaves. The victim lost a lot of money from his pocket.

Of course, by the time Tivald woke up, there was a friendly superintendent at his bedside, smiling and shaking his head.

„This Troubled! The 13th Tivald! And his bad luck!”

He was well known, he was almost popular because of this bad luck.

When 13th Troubled put on his straw hat, especially on a sunny, spring day, his friends turned back and rushed home for their raincoats because if Tivald put on a straw hat, then a predominantly wet weather should be expected.

Tivald 13th the Troubled could only be differentiated from other unlucky people by his cheerfulness. He was wandering around the world, and laughed on his misfortune. His motto was "I don't give a damn about me." He also said sometimes with some sardonic glee that "I deserve it, why should I was born!".

Gradually he abandoned safe cracking, and returned to his old profession just extremely rarely and under extremely suitable circumstances. But what could be suitable for him?

Misfortune can close even the best plan with prison. However, good luck can suddenly come to rescue the yegg, even in the darkest moments. The latter case was unknown to Tivald 13th the Troubled. And the best safecracker slowly became a hobo. A good joke, a good punch was everything for him. Sometimes, in one of the major cities, the hobo became a safecracker, but after he served his term he became a hobo again. This variety put a little color in his life.

In his forties, with greyish hair he was merrily travelling around the world and its prisons, and he knew that for him there is bad luck in everything.

So that is why he was known in the underworld as Tivald 13th The Troubled.

The origin of the last name Pencroft was obscure even to him.

In Honduras, there were some greater and smaller works which laid burden on his conscience, so he started to make a crude balance about his committed crimes and their probable punishments, while the two detectives led him through the streets of Tegucigalpa. They can prove two cases, at most. And, maybe that third, at Guadalcar.

...

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