Magda Szabo

Fourteen-year-old Gina, the spoiled daughter of a Hungarian general, rails against being sent to boarding school far from Budapest when war breaks out, but finds help in a statue of Abigail and her new "sisters."

Abigail

Marion 

life, for all its horrors, was wonderful, and of all those wonders the most precious was youth. 

It’s not a tragedy and it wasn’t one yesterday.

She was oppressed by a consciousness of living in a world of strangers, subject to rules that constantly disrupted the rhythm of her life, and where everything that belonged to her, everything that was part of her, seemed far away.

Like hungry little foxes, they were always on the qui vive, looking to squeeze out every bit of fun they could in the thicket of rules and regulations and constant supervision. It was a never-ending quest, in which twenty pairs of shoulders and twenty young minds forever looking for love and laughter supported and sustained one another.

She was among sisters, nineteen of them. After that stormy start to the year, and those painful early confrontations, she now lived among them in an intimacy and harmony such as she had never known before.

Sometimes a nightmare can be so cruel, so murderous, so horrifying and hope-destroying that it leaves you whimpering and moaning for someone to come and wake you.

Much later, when there were no more secrets to distract her, and her eyes were no longer blinded by misery to such important new experiences, she would look back and remember her first encounter with the Great Plain, in the bleak light of autumn, so different from the deep luxuriant glow of summer.

Now, I have to admit, it was evident pretty early on who Abigail was so I cannot say it was any level of mystery that had me wanting to read more or that immersed me deeply any time I could spare 10-20min to read. Rather, Szabo has such wonderful narration, such lovely turn of phrase, that I could not help but want to keep reading. (I think it is a great testament to the author's talent when the reader can follow a story through to its natural conclusion, when they ultimately can tell or know what happens to the character, yet the work still has their full attention. It takes a great sense of what creates suspence and make a story gripping without wearing out the reader to achieve this).

This is a historic snippet of a war told by a 14- / 15-year-old girl and it never forgets that. You can tell how young Gina is by her reactions and her naivete; yet, her reality has also given her a certain level of maturity - perhaps because the prose never seeks to infantilise her. It is like we, as readers, can remember being her and can therefore, imagine her historic setting better, too. 

It is clear that Szabo is an all-around good, competent author; someone who has worked on their craft and wields it confidently. It really made me want to pick up more of her work.

Girl, I was invested.

Now, I have to admit, it was evident pretty early on who Abigail was so I cannot say it was any level of mystery that had me wanting to read more or that immersed me deeply any time I could spare 10-20min to read. Rather, Szabo has such wonderful narration, such lovely turn of phrase, that I could not help but want to keep reading. (I think it is a great testament to the author's talent when the reader can follow a story through to its natural conclusion, when they ultimately can tell or know what happens to the character, yet the work still has their full attention. It takes a great sense of what creates suspence and make a story gripping without wearing out the reader to achieve this).

This is a historic snippet of a war told by a 14- / 15-year-old girl and it never forgets that. You can tell how young Gina is by her reactions and her naivete; yet, her reality has also given her a certain level of maturity - perhaps because the prose never seeks to infantilise her. It is like we, as readers, can remember being her and can therefore, imagine her historic setting better, too. 

It is clear that Szabo is an all-around good, competent author; someone who has worked on their craft and wields it confidently. It really made me want to pick up more of her work.

I would pay to read this book again without knowing what’s in store for me. The ups and downs of girlhood, relationships, and life itself. I loved it thoroughly. 

Magda Szabó

"Of all Szabó's novels, Abigail deserves the widest readership . . . Brilliantly written" TIBOR FISCHER "Szabó is skilful at creating moments of heart-rending tension, often through exquisite, evocative prose . . . the novel has a devastating power" Spectator A teenage girl's difficult journey towards adulthood in a time of war. Of all her novels, Magda Szabó's Abigail is the most widely read in her native Hungary. Now, fifty years after it was written, it appears for the first time in English, joining Katalin Street and The Door in a loose trilogy about the impact of war on those who have to live with the consequences. It is late 1943 and Hitler, exasperated by the slowness of his Hungarian ally to act on the "Jewish question" and alarmed by the weakness on his southern flank, is preparing to occupy the country. Foreseeing this, and concerned for his daughter's safety, a Budapest father decides to send her to a boarding school away from the capital. A lively, sophisticated, somewhat spoiled teenager, she is not impressed by the reasons she is given, and when the school turns out to be a fiercely Puritanical one in a provincial city a long way from home, she rebels outright. Her superior attitude offends her new classmates and things quickly turn sour. It is the start of a long and bitter learning curve that will open her eyes to her arrogant blindness to other people's true motives and feelings. Exposed for the first time to the realities of life for those less privileged than herself, and increasingly confronted by evidence of the more sinister purposes of the war, she learns lessons about the nature of loyalty, courage, sacrifice and love. Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix

Eszter Baranyi

Hated the 2/3 of the book, loved the rest and the ending

From the author of The Door, a beloved coming-of-age tale set in WWII-era Hungary. Abigail, the story of a headstrong teenager growing up during World War II, is the most beloved of Magda Szabó’s books in her native Hungary. Gina is the only child of a general, a widower who has long been happy to spoil his bright and willful daughter. Gina is devastated when the general tells her that he must go away on a mission and that he will be sending her to boarding school in the country. She is even more aghast at the grim religious institution to which she soon finds herself consigned. She fights with her fellow students, she rebels against her teachers, finds herself completely ostracized, and runs away. Caught and brought back, there is nothing for Gina to do except entrust her fate to the legendary Abigail, as the classical statue of a woman with an urn that stands on the school’s grounds has come to be called. If you’re in trouble, it’s said, leave a message with Abigail and help will be on the way. And for Gina, who is in much deeper trouble than she could possibly suspect, a life-changing adventure is only beginning. There is something of Jane Austen in this story of the deceptiveness of appearances; fans of J.K. Rowling are sure to enjoy Szabó’s picture of irreverent students, eccentric teachers, and boarding-school life. Above all, however, Abigail is a thrilling tale of suspense.

Abigail

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