Tibor Déry, Niki, The Story of a Dog – Susan Rubin Suleiman, Budapest Diary: In Search of the Motherbook – Marcus Tanner, Raven King Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library – Kati Marton, Enemies of the People – Sade, Soldier of Love (CD) – Massive Attack, Heligoland (CD)
Tibor Déry, Niki, The Story of a Dog
“The Dog adopted the Ancsas in the spring of ‘48”. So the story begins. The Ancsas are a middle-aged couple living on the outskirts of Budapest in a ruinous Hungary that is just beginning to wake up from the nightmare of World War II. The new Communist government promises to set things straight, and Mr. Ancsa, an engineer, is eager to get to work building the future in order to forget the past. The last thing he has time for is a stray dog, pregnant with her first litter. But Niki knows better, and before long she’s part of the Ancsa household. The Ancsas even take her along with them when Mr. Ancsa’s new job requires a move to an apartment in the city. He’s shortly swept up in a political crackdown – disappearing without a trace for five years, during which Mrs. Ancsa and Niki have only each other. The story of Niki, an ordinary dog, and the Ancsas, a no less ordinary couple, is an extraordinarily touching, utterly unsentimental parable about caring, kindness, and the endurance of love.
Susan Rubin Suleiman, Budapest Diary: In Search of the Motherbook
Suleiman (Risking Who One Is, 1994) returns to her birthplace after more than 40 years, looking for her Hungarian Jewish roots. She was a little girl when her parents fled through darkened fields to escape the Communist regime in Hungary in 1949. In 1984, Suleiman returned to Budapest with her two young sons for a vacation, trying to give them a sense of her childhood. Finally, nine years later, she returned again, this time on a six-month fellowship. The bulk of Budapest Diary recounts that lengthier visit, colored by memories of her childhood and her own imaginings of how her sons, now almost grown men, would regard this latest trip. At the heart of the book is the desire to retrieve a piece of family history, and gradually, the author finds herself, a perpetual emigrant, developing something like a feeling of home for the city of her birth, but not without the unearthing of some uncomfortable memories. At its best, it’s a poignant piece of self-revelation, sprinkled with some trenchant observations on the way the dead hand of history has weighed down the former Warsaw Pact countries.
Marcus Tanner, Raven King Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library
Seizing the Hungarian throne at the age of fifteen, Matthias Corvinus, “the Raven King”, was an effervescent presence on the fifteenth-century stage. A successful warrior and munificent art patron, he sought to leave as symbols of his strategic and humanist ambitions a strong, unified country, splendid palaces, and the most magnificent library in Christendom. But Hungary, invaded by the Ottoman Empire after Matthias’ death in 1490, yielded its treasures, and the exquisite library, witness to a golden cultural age, was dispersed across Europe. The quest to recover this collection of sumptuously illuminated manuscripts provoked and tantalized generations of princes, cardinals, collectors and scholars, and imbued Hungarians with the mythical conviction that the restoration of the lost library would seal their country’s rebirth. In this account, drawing on a wealth of original sources in several languages, Tanner charts the odyssey of the Raven King and his magnificent bequest, uncovering the remarkable story of a life and library almost lost to history.
Kati Marton, Enemies of the People
“You are opening a Pandora’s box”, Marton was warned when she filed for her family’s secret police files in Budapest. But her family history – during both the Nazi and the Communist periods – was too full of shadows. The files revealed terrifying truths: secret love affairs, betrayals, torture and brutalities alongside acts of stunning courage. In this true-life thriller, Marton, an accomplished journalist, exposes the cruel mechanics of the Communist Terror State, using the secret police files on her journalist parents as well as dozens of interviews that reveal how her family was spied on and betrayed by friends and colleagues.
Sade, Soldier of Love (CD)
Known for her one-of-a-kind timeless sound, Sade’s enjoyed phenomenal success both internationally and stateside throughout the span of a twenty-five year career. This highly anticipated new body of work features 10 new songs, including the latest single Soldier of Love.
Massive Attack, Heligoland (CD)
It’s the much anticipated fifth studio album from legendary trip-hop duo, Massive Attack. Heligoland is the first new studio album since 2003’s critically-acclaimed 100th Window and includes the hauntingly spine-tingling track Paradise Circus, featuring the silken vocals of Hope Sandoval.
Look out for Libri’s stand at the 17th International Book Festival, April 22nd-25th (details in the link).