<img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/14/0/0/1500/1151/664/0/75/0/30db324_297666-3334740.jpg" srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/14/0/0/1500/1151/556/0/75/0/30db324_297666-3334740.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/14/0/0/1500/1151/600/0/75/0/30db324_297666-3334740.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/14/0/0/1500/1151/664/0/75/0/30db324_297666-3334740.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/14/0/0/1500/1151/700/0/75/0/30db324_297666-3334740.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/14/0/0/1500/1151/800/0/75/0/30db324_297666-3334740.jpg 800w" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="In a Budapest bookshop, an employee seals a book by Zsófia Bán in plastic as it officially contravenes the " child="" protection="" act,"="" july="" 26,="" 2023."="" width="100%" height="auto">
"The first time I saw my book in plastic, I felt like I was living in a dystopia," said Tibor Rácz-Stefán, the Hungarian author of I Want You for Christmas (untranslated), which came out this winter and tells the story of the coming out of young Bence. "It's a bit like there's something shameful in my novel to hide, even though it's been rated very positively by readers and sold very well." The 35-year-old gay writer observed that fewer and fewer bookshops are carrying his novel, and he fears censorship.
For the past two years, nationalist Viktor Orbán's Hungary has banned both the "display" and the "promotion of homosexuality and gender reassignment" to children under 18. In force since July 1, 2021, this "child protection" law had hardly been applied to the book world. But in May, the Consumer Protection Authority launched two proceedings against the country's two biggest bookshop chains, Libri and Lira, for books sold in the children's section that did not comply with the law's requirements. Libri was fined 1 million forints (€2,600) and Lira 12 million forints (€31,400).
As a result, bookshops have decided that books deemed "sensitive" must be wrapped in plastic or moved them to the adult section, if they have not decided to refrain from selling them altogether. The legislation, deemed discriminatory, caused an outcry when it was enacted. The European Commission has referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union, proceedings that are likely to take many months to reach a conclusion.
Rácz-Stefán said that his book is now sold "in only one store" of the Libri group. In the capital, at least two of the group's stores were without the book in mid-August. "It's a very popular book, but we don't have it in store anymore," explained an employee of the bookshop in central Budapest. "I'm afraid that, in time, my work will no longer reach readers. This would be a great loss for me and my publisher, but also for Hungarian LGBTQ+ youth. It's all the more problematic because Hungarians don't buy many books online and Amazon doesn't distribute here," said Rácz-Stefán.
At Lira, it's British author Alice Oseman's bestseller Heartstopper, about the love of two teenage boys and aimed at readers aged 12 and up, that is being attacked. "The fine we have been charged is the highest in the history of book distribution in Hungary," said Krisztián Nyáry, creative director of Lira. "We're a solid company, but a small bookseller won't take this risk. And to think that the adaptation of the book is freely available on Netflix for those over 13." He points out that, according to the decree implementing the law, no content displaying homosexuality or gender reassignment may appear within 200 meters of a school or church.
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