Historical fiction books from Hungary
Recommended historical fiction books (12)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from Hungary for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
Abigail by Magda Szabó EN
Description:
A teenage girl's difficult journey towards adulthood in a time of war. "Szabo is skilful at creating moments of heart-rending tension, often through exquisite, evocative prose . . . the novel has a devastating power" Spectator 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 all... continue
3.
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler EN
Description:
Originally published in 1941, Arthur Koestler's modern masterpiece, "Darkness At Noon," is a powerful and haunting portrait of a Communist revolutionary caught in the vicious fray of the Moscow show trials of the late 1930s. During Stalin's purges, Nicholas Rubashov, an aging revolutionary, is imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the party he has devoted his life to. Under mounting pressure to confess to crimes he did not commit, Rubashov relives a career that embodies the ironies and betrayals of a revolutionary dictatorship that believes it is an instrument of liberation. A seminal wor... continue
4.
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb EN
Description:
Travelling to Italy on their honeymoon, Erszi and Mihaly are ready to take in all the beauties and pleasures of the country. But when they reach Venice, it is clear that Mihaly prefers to roam around the back alleys and the canals on his own, and as they continue their journey through the Bel Paese there is a growing sense of unrest between them, until Mihaly misses the train to Rome they were due to take together. Wandering alone from city to city, with his marriage rapidly falling apart, Mihaly must confront the ghosts of his past and try to find a sense of purpose.
5.
Katalin Street by Magda Szabó EN
Description:
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.
6.
Los desposeídos by Szilárd Borbély ES
Description:
Los Desposeídos es un profundo ejercicio de comprensión del escenario de la infancia del autor: la Hungría de mediados del siglo XX, un país traumatizado por la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el regreso de los supervivientes de los gulags y la expropiación de las tierras por los comunistas. A finales de los años sesenta, una fam ilia lucha por sobrevivir a la miseria en un pequeño pueblo fronterizo de Hungría. El hijo de once años se evade del frío y el hambre imaginando un universo propio en el que gobiernan los números primos mientras observa con todo detalle el mundo que le rodea. Se trata de un m... continue
7.
Migrations by Miloš Crnjanski EN
Description:
Eighteenth century Serbs flee the tyranny of the Ottoman Empire as two brothers, a soldier and a merchant, and a woman, who is wife to one and mistress to the other, face the displacement and sorrows of war.
8.
The Bronze Eagle by Emmuska Orczy EN
Description:
The perfect calm of an early spring dawn lies over headland and sea—hardly a ripple stirs the blue cheek of the bay. The softness of departing night lies upon the bosom of the Mediterranean like the dew upon the heart of a flower.A silent dawn.Veils of transparent greys and purples and mauves still conceal the distant horizon. Breathless calm rests upon the water and that awed hush which at times descends upon Nature herself when the finger of Destiny marks an eventful hour.But now the grey and the purple veils beyond the headland are lifted one by one; the midst of dawn rises upwards like the... continue
9.
Description:
From the author of The Door and Abigail and for fans of Elena Ferrante and Clarice Lispector, a newly translated novel about a theater star who is forced to reckon with her painful and tragic past. In The Door, in Iza’s Ballad, and in Abigail, Magda Szabó describes the complex relationships between women of different ages and backgrounds with an astute and unsparing eye. Eszter, the narrator and protagonist of The Fawn, may well be Szabó’s most fascinating creation. Eszter is an only child. She grows up in a provincial Hungarian town with her father, an eccentric aristocrat and steeply downwar... continue
10.
The Notebook : The Proof ; The Third Lie : Three Novels by Agota Kristof EN
Description:
Kristof's postmodern saga begins with The Notebook, in which the brothers are children, lost in a country torn apart by conflict, who must learn every trick of evil and cruelty merely to survive.