Iza's Ballad - Hardcover

Szabo, Magda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846552656 ISBN 13: 9781846552656

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2014

Synopsis

A profoundly moving novel with the unforgettable power of Szabó's award-winning The Door.
     Vince and Ettie have lived most of their lives in the Hungarian countryside. Their daughter Iza sends a toaster and other mod cons from Budapest, but these are treated with suspicion and placed at the back of the cupboard; and the linen, which dates from the time of the family's great poverty, is mended, washed and ironed, but never replaced. They are perplexed by modern life.

     When Vince dies, Iza insists that her mother gives up the family home and moves to Budapest. Displaced from her community and her home, she tries to find her place in this new life, but can't seem to get it right. She irritates the maid, hangs food outside the window because she mistrusts the fridge and, in her naivety and loneliness, invites a prostitute in for tea.

     Iza's Ballad is the story of a woman who loses her life's companion and a mother trying to get close to a daughter whom she has never truly known. It is about the meeting of the old-fashioned and the modern worlds and the beliefs we construct over a lifetime.

About this title

About the Author:

MAGDA SZABÓ was born in 1917 in Debrecen, Hungary. She began her literary career as a poet. In the 1950s she disappeared from the publishing scene for political reasons and made her living by teaching and translating from French and English. She began writing novels, and in 1978 was awarded the Kossuth Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Hungary. Magda Szabó died in 2007.

Review:

   · "[A] heartbreakingly beautiful novel... George Szirtes conveys both the sophistication and simplicity of Szabó's narrative in a superb translation... Humble, wistful Ettie is a wonderful creation... Just as The Door won an immediate English-language following, Iza's Ballad is bound to become one of the most loved books of the year... This publication of Iza's Ballad, subtle and profound, is a cause for celebration." --Irish Times 

   · "The writing has a lovely clarity and a relevance that is timeless." --Kate Saunders, The Times 

   · "Szabo nails with incisive clarity the painful dynamics between the two [central] characters... A perceptive study of family relationships, bereavement and old age, it is harrowingly beautiful." --Juanita Coulson, Lady

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1846552656
• ISBN 13: 9781846552656
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320