The time has come to say goodbye. As keri.feri23 mentioned in his previous post, the blog is finished. It will remain searchable, but no more new posts, no more interviews – this mystery is the final one. We have written extensively about the reasons for the suspension in the above-mentioned post, and we’ve also discussed it on our Facebook page. It basically boils down to how all good things must come to an end. We thank you for having followed us. I believe that this last post is a fitting closure to what we’ve been doing the past few years. We could even say it’s our crowning achievement.

This final literary mystery is about a book that has never been completed. Ironic, given its title: The Unpublished Books of Hungary. The manuscript was supposed to have been written by Márton Kopaszhegyi-Kézi and Júlia Nagy. Kopaszhegyi-­Kézi was the former editor of a well-known men’s magazine, JCQ. He is also the author of two small press short story collections: The Rivers of the Moon and Dreamtime, the latter of which won the short-lived Pompa Prize, awarded by JCQ magazine from 2001-2003. Júlia Nagy is known as a journalist and the editor of literary magazines, such as New Kalifa (established 1997, ended 2003) and Litera Magnum (established 2005, ended 2010). She currently divides her time between ghost-writing music biographies and managing the Adopt Me! animal shelter. Tragically Márton Kopaszhegyi-­Kézi passed away in 2012; however Júlia Nagy kindly answered most of our questions, clearing up the picture about their joint project. She also sent us the relevant parts of the unfinished manuscript, which we publish here verbatim, including the editorial notes.

Márton Kopaszhegyi-Kézi’s personal notes were made available to us by his widow. We would like to express our gratitude to her here.

The unfinished book, just as the title promises, was supposed to be a catalogue and history of unfinished or unpublished books. Region 2000, a Budapest-­based publishing firm, had commissioned the book. Region 2000 achieved its greatest success with volumes on local history from towns all over the country. Later they switched to local art history, then to even more obscure facets, such as the history of local cinemas and theater houses. The publisher was eventually bought out by one of the well-known large distributors, and after a while it was closed down, its assets digested into a larger company.

The idea came about a few years before the buyout and closure. The two authors had already ghost-written several books for Region 2000, although never together. The idea was that people were more likely to read a volume about unfinished books than to read the actual finished and published literature gathering dust on bookshelves.