She is aided by a beautiful erudite translation by Len Rix, which saw this novel shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and being awarded the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Emerence, then, is an enigmatic creature, who believes in not speaking unless it is necessary, and in constantly working.įrom this simple premise Szabó builds an incredibly tense narrative, at times frightening, at times deeply moving, and always human in its understanding it reveals Szabó as a writer of great skill. Emerence is known and loved through the neighbourhood, though only the Lieutenant Colonel has ever been in her home and will not speak of what he has seen there. If she cannot be there for work during the day she will come in at night and do the work, and sometimes she leaves small presents for her employers. Emerence has her peculiarities, but Magda and her husband are pleased with her work. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of a writer, called Magda, who struggling for success, employs an elderly woman as a housekeeper. Prior to Stalinist rule she had at least two books of poetry and was awarded the Baumgarten Prize in 1949 only to have to taken away from her the same day.Īz Ajtó (The Door), then, is a late entry in her canon.
She was known as a novelist, dramas, essays, and poetry, though she came to the first three of those after the era of Stalinist rule ended in Hungary. Magda Szabó was widely regarded as Hungary’s foremost female writer, and following her death in 2007, her reputation has only increased.
0 kommentar(er)
