A czigánybáró; Minden poklokon keresztül

In the early 1800s a solitary magnate dominates a bleak, water‑logged corner of the Banat, where once‑thriving villages have been reduced to ruins by war, flood and Ottoman sabotage. The land is a tangled maze of marshes, shifting rivers and abandoned fields, a place where wolves and insects rule and the very soil seems hostile to cultivation. Against this desolate backdrop, the single landowner—known simply as Botsinkay—has managed to turn the wasteland into a rare oasis of opportunity.

He does so by striking uneasy bargains with the occupying forces, borrowing prisoners to build massive dikes that drain the swamps and render the ground arable. The newly reclaimed fields feed flocks, and the lord rewards the settlers with modest holdings, even funding a shining, tin‑capped church whose upkeep is secured by a generous endowment. As the region slowly awakens, the story follows his ambitious attempts to reshape a cursed landscape into a thriving estate, while the looming presence of war and nature constantly threatens his fragile success.