TÖVISPUSZTA

In these fascinating accounts, the subtle and idiosyncratic exchanges of characters brim with humour as well as tragic poignancy - and belie all black and white accounts of history books. Loyalties are fluctuating. Interpretations and opinions of incidents are many-shaded, from naïve to fanatic to cynical. The archetypal theme of human tragedy - one moment your neighbours are friends, the next moment they are enemies and likely to betray you in order to save their skin, the lives of friends and those of their own blood. With the epic fates of three families and the fictional village that connects them, the author is speaking to grandchildren the world over, because the lessons of the twentieth century cannot be conveyed in numbers and algorithms - an approach still adopted in schools, It alienated me from taking up history as a study subject, as it did my son, so enthusiastic at first, three decades later. Stories allow us to absorb the human complexities and secrets hidden in our tangled histories. With a little magic thrown into realism it becomes possible to explore our preconceptions and fears, have a dialogue with the enemy inside and outside, and become more tolerant. This, for me, sums up this mesmerising novel.

Known for his humor, incisive questioning, and insightful reportage, Kepes has long been hailed as the most popular television journalist in Budapest. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of some of the most varied and extraordinary characters in a nation of dramatic contradictions, he has finally written a historical novel that is both personal and epic. Beginning with the friendship of three boys--an aristocrat, a peasant, and a Jew--he spins a spellbinding tale of the Hungarian experience through their children and grandchildren as they live through feudalism, fascism, war, Communism, revolution, emigration. Funny, intimate, tragic, it is a saga of realism and magic, in which a nation's heart-breaking history comes through with bittersweet poignancy. Kepes is a wondrous storyteller, marvelous in revealing the variety and depth of the soul. A fine novel, a breathtaking adventure.

The theme of the novel is quite simply the history of Hungary in the twentieth century, including the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the Kingdom of Hungary (which had no king), the short-lived Second Hungarian Republic, the Hungarian People's Republic (which was the people's in name only), and the first twenty years of the Third Hungarian Republic. To be more precise, with its presentation of a century in the history of two fictional Hungarian villages (Tövispuszta and Szentágoston) and the story of four Hungarian families, the novel offers a gripping and revealing panorama of Hungarian society and history in the twentieth century.

The Hungarian plod across a plain covered with thorns, and they are battered time and time again by the storms of history: the Trianon Peace Treaty, the Horthy era, Arrow Cross rule, communism, and even the change of regimes. Wherever the novel wanders, it always returns to where its roots lie - Tövispuszta. The story is shaped by history, and it unravels almost by itself. Képes has created such a wide range of characters that he is able to present all of Hungarian society within a given family. We see how, over the course of several generations, the fates of the country and its people have unfolded since the end of the First World War, and we are given glimpses into the mentalities of the different age groups, the motivations which prompt them to act, and the dangers they see in the rise to power of a given idea or ideology.

The extremely complicated and rather miserable history of Hungary in the 20th century was brought closer to many Hungarians when András Kepes published this novel which was rightly advertised as the quintessence of that period. It is the intertwined history of three, rather typical Hungarians and their offspring. They come from Tövispuszta, a fictional community somewhere in Transdanubia. Isti Veres is a poor peasant boy. Pali, the son of Baron Szentágostony, the local landlord, lives in a castle on the hill above the village. Dávid Goldstein's father, the village Jew, owns a small shop. The political dramas have a direct impact on the lives of these friends, as on all their fellow Hungarians. (.) The details and many characters are described by Kepes with deep human understanding, interspersed with sarcastic humour. The conversations and the episodes are ingenious and telling. Only a Hungarian, well-versed in the history of those years, can appreciate how accurately and honestly the history of that period is told. Thanks to this book Hungarian or foreign readers who know little or nothing at all about those times, can gain more insight than from scholarly works into what went on in Hungary before Communism engulfed the country.

This highly readable book traces the history of three Hungarian families over the last hundred years, and through their fate we learn of the tumultuous and fascinating history of fascist and communist totalitarianist Hungary. Kepes' prose is sharp, clear and entertaining and he writes with deep human understanding and great humor. The book certainly deserves to be a bestseller in English as it has been in Hungarian; it delivers a powerful and deeply engaging message about how ordinary people cope with extraordinary historical circumstances. Kepes' book is a riveting page-turner, and as a multi-generational family saga it belongs in the finest traditions of this illustrious genre.