Name: Katalin Street
Rating: 4.3 (5 reviews)
ISBN: 9780975386446

M. Szabo

From the award-winning author of "The Door" comes "Katalin Street," first published in Hungarian in 1968 and translated into French, German, and Swedish. This elegant English translation by Agnes Farkas Smith now makes "Katalin Street" available to an even wider audience.

Katalin Street

Magda Szabo

In preewar Budapest three families live side by side on gracious Katalin Street, their lives closely intertwined. A game is played by the four children in which Bálint, the promising son of the Major, invariably chooses Irén Elekes, the headmaster's dutiful elder daughter, over her younger sister, the scatterbrained Blanka, and little Henriette Held, the daughter of the Jewish dentist. Their lives are torn apart in 1944 by the German occupation, which only the Elekes family survives intact. The postwar regime relocates them to a cramped Soviet-style apartment and they struggle to come to terms with social and political change, personal loss, and unstated feelings of guilt over the deportation of the Held parents and the death of little Henriette, who had been left in their protection. But the girl survives in a miasmal afterlife, and reappears at key moments as a mute witness to the inescapable power of past events."--

My friend invited me to buddy read this, and to my surprise, it turned out to be one of the best reads I’ve had this year. What I love most about 

 is that it’s not really about the war—not directly. The war lingers in the background, yes, but the real focus is on the people: their families, their relationships, their attempts to hold onto some semblance of life. It’s as if the war is a subplot: resent, unavoidable, but not the core. The story seems to say, their lives didn’t stop because of the bombs. They’re still living. Or at least, they’re trying to. Szabó is an incredibly influential writer. You get the sense that she delivers each truth gently (piece by piece) like feeding a toddler. She doesn’t shy away from destruction, she just cradles it just enough for us to bear it, but it still leaves us broken all the same. The impact is devastating because you know it was intentional on her part. It left me dumbfounded.

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My friend invited me to buddy read this, and to my surprise, it turned out to be one of the best reads I’ve had this year. What I love most about Katalin Street is that it’s not really about the war—not directly. The war lingers in the background, yes, but the real focus is on the people: their families, their relationships, their attempts to hold onto some semblance of life. It’s as if the war is a subplot: resent, unavoidable, but not the core. The story seems to say, their lives didn’t stop because of the bombs. They’re still living. Or at least, they’re trying to. Szabó is an incredibly influential writer. You get the sense that she delivers each truth gently (piece by piece) like feeding a toddler. She doesn’t shy away from destruction, she just cradles it just enough for us to bear it, but it still leaves us broken all the same. The impact is devastating because you know it was intentional on her part. It left me dumbfounded.

marta

Nasia

A kabel 

Magda Szabó

WINNER OF THE 2018 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE - BY THE AUTHOR OF THE DOOR, ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2015 In prewar Budapest three families live side by side on gracious Katalin Street, their lives closely intertwined. A game is played by the four children in which Bálint, the promising son of the Major, invariably chooses Irén Elekes, the headmaster's dutiful elder daughter, over her younger sister, the scatterbrained Blanka, and little Henriette Held, the daughter of the Jewish dentist. Their lives are torn apart in 1944 by the German occupation, which only the Elekes family survives intact. The postwar regime relocates them to a cramped Soviet-style apartment and they struggle to come to terms with social and political change, personal loss, and unstated feelings of guilt over the deportation of the Held parents and the death of little Henriette, who had been left in their protection. But the girl survives in a miasmal afterlife, and reappears at key moments as a mute witness to the inescapable power of past events. As in The Door and Iza's Ballad, Magda Szabó conducts a clear-eyed investigation into the ways in which we inflict suffering on those we love. Katalin Street, which won the 2007 Prix Cévennes for Best European novel, is a poignant, sombre, at times harrowing book, but beautifully conceived and truly unforgettable. Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix

Katalin Street

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