hungary

Though small in size, Hungary is as rich in its history and culture as it is in its distinctive, paprika-laden cuisine. Set off from the rest of Europe by its unique Magyar language and spirit, the country has always been something of an outlier. This book traces Hungary's development, from its early days as a haven for nomadic tribes to its years as a Soviet satellite state and beyond.

The young Hungarian artist Bela Zombory-Moldovan was abroad on vacation when World War I broke out in August 1914. Called up by the army, he soon found himself hundreds of miles away, advancing on Russian lines--or perhaps on his own lines--and facing relentless rifle and artillery fire. Badly wounded, he returned to normal life, which now struck him as unspeakably strange. He had witnessed, he realized, the end of a way of life, of a whole world. Recently discovered among private papers and published here for the first time in any language, this reminiscence is a deeply moving addition to the literature of the terrible war that defined the shape of the twentieth century.

Imagine being a thirteen-year-old girl in love with boys, school, family--life itself. Then suddenly, in a matter of hours, your life is shattered by the arrival of a foreign army. You can no longer attend school, have possessions, talk to your neighbors. One day your family has to leave your house behind and move into a crowded ghetto, where you lose all privacy and there isn't enough food to eat. Still you manage, somehow, to adjust. But there is much, much worse to come. This is the memoir of Elli Friedmann, who was thirteen years old in March 1944, when the Nazis invaded Hungary. It describes her descent into the hell of Auschwitz, a concentration camp where, because of her golden braids, she was selected for work instead of extermination. In intimate, excruciating details she recounts what it was like to be one of the few teenage camp inmates, and the tiny but miraculous twists of fate that helped her survive against all odds.

Tells the story of the "Gold Train," which held millions of dollars' worth of loot taken from Hungarian Jews before they were murdered in the Holocaust, and investigates its fate after the war.

Selling meat out of a bus parked next to a stream in suburban Virginia, Seymour Akos Pfiegman evaluates his lonely existence as an unlikely bandit and historian of mundane trivia, in a tale that indirectly reflects the long history of Hungary.

Life changes drastically for a Hungarian family when World War I upsets their peaceful, contented existence and the children are left in charge of the farm.

Retells the legendary story of the Huns and Magyars' long migration from Asia to Europe where they hope to find a permanent home.