The Door

Absolutely beautiful book about the family we find.

I really enjoyed this book. The story of the relationship between a woman and her housekeeper, who exerts an interesting sort of psychological control. Themes of friendship, class, human connection, betrayal. The writing is gorgeous and the translation excellent - I'd've assumed it was written in English if I didn't know better. It was a page-turner for me, a "just one more chapter before I go to sleep" book.

Loved it and an immediate favourite. An intriguing and provocative story about the relationship between two fascinating characters: The narrator (referred to as “Lady Writer”), and Emerence, the enigmatic, primal force who is her housekeeper (and much more). Emerence is frequently silent but sees clearly and insightfully, while the narrator, who believes she is telling a faithful story, lacks insight and sees much less than she imagines. Szabó’s writing is genius. Somehow she made me exasperated and distrustful of the unreliable, self-centred narrator, while at the same time making me identify with her and all her flaws. By making the narrator unreliable, Szabó also led me to consider the real motivations of the characters, which deepened my understanding of them both. I suspect this says something profound about novels. Translated by Len Rix