{"title":"Magda Szabo","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMagda Szabó\u003c\/strong\u003e offers deeply compelling narratives that explore the complexities of human relationships and the nuances of identity. Her works, such as \u003cem\u003eAbigail\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Door\u003c\/em\u003e, delve into themes of loyalty, trust, and the often painful search for self-understanding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet against rich and atmospheric backdrops, Szabó’s fiction invites readers to reflect on the hidden layers of everyday life and the quiet struggles that shape us. These stories resonate with emotional depth and a keen insight into the human condition.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"abigail-by-magda-szabo-9780857058492","title":"Abigail","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA teenage girl's difficult journey towards adulthood in a time of war.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAbigail\u003c\/em\u003e is described as \"A school story for grownups that is also about our inability or refusal to protect children from history\" by SARAH MOSS.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Of all Szabo's novels, \u003cem\u003eAbigail\u003c\/em\u003e deserves the widest readership. It's an adventure story, brilliantly written\" — TIBOR FISCHER.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOf all her novels, Magda Szabo's \u003cem\u003eAbigail\u003c\/em\u003e is indeed the most widely read in her native Hungary. Now, fifty years after it was written, it appears for the first time in English, joining \u003cem\u003eKatalin Street\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Door\u003c\/em\u003e in a loose trilogy about the impact of war on those who have to live with the consequences.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt 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.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA 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.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt 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.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Hungarian by Len Rix.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46710136307948,"sku":"9780857058492","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3510453482493.jpg?v=1754129564"},{"product_id":"the-fawn-by-magda-szabo-9781529425659","title":"The Fawn","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"One of Hungary's most important twentieth-century writers\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Magda Szabó's fiction shows the travails of modern Hungarian history from oblique but sharply illuminating angles\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eEconomist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEszter Encsy is an acclaimed actress, funny and outrageous, quick-witted but callous. Yet even flushed with the success of adulthood, Eszter craves acceptance of herself as she really is and of the person she has been.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe only child of an impoverished aristocrat and a harried music teacher failing to make ends meet, Eszter grew up poor and painfully aware of it in a provincial Hungarian town.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe feelings of resentment and envy acquired during her fraught childhood have hardened into an obsessional hatred for one person, the beautiful, saintly, and pampered Angela, Eszter's former classmate and the wife of the man who becomes her lover.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet against newly communist 1950s Hungary, \u003ci\u003eThe Fawn\u003c\/i\u003e embraces the lies and falsehoods people were obliged to live with in those nightmarish times, and displays Szabó's uncanny ability to convey how the past can haunt and consume us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTranslated from the Hungarian by Len Rix.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46716525576428,"sku":"9781529425659","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/14678313482732.jpg?v=1754430039"},{"product_id":"the-door-by-magda-szabo-9781590177716","title":"The Door","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn NYRB Classics Original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Door\u003c\/em\u003e is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women. Magda is a writer, educated, married to an academic, public-spirited, with an on-again-off-again relationship to Hungary's Communist authorities. Emerence is a peasant, illiterate, impassive, abrupt, seemingly ageless. She lives alone in a house that no one else may enter, not even her closest relatives. She is Magda's housekeeper and she has taken control over Magda's household, becoming indispensable to her. And Emerence, in her way, has come to depend on Magda. They share a kind of love—at least until Magda's long-sought success as a writer leads to a devastating revelation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLen Rix's prizewinning translation of \u003cem\u003eThe Door\u003c\/em\u003e at last makes it possible for American readers to appreciate the masterwork of a major modern European writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ingram Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47488009371884,"sku":"9781590177716","price":35.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781590177716-the-door.jpg?v=1775763621"},{"product_id":"abigail-by-magda-szabo-9781681374031","title":"Abigail","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Door\u003c\/i\u003e, a beloved coming-of-age tale set in WWII-era Hungary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAbigail\u003c\/i\u003e, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShe is even more aghast at the grim religious institution to which she soon finds herself consigned. She fights with her fellow students, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere 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, \u003ci\u003eAbigail\u003c\/i\u003e is a thrilling tale of suspense.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ingram Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47697002037484,"sku":"9781681374031","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781681374031-abigail.jpg?v=1780372098"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/magda-szabo.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}