The vibrant Jewish quarter of Budapest provides the setting for these stories by Hungarian twins Giorgio and Nicola Pressburger. Holocaust survivors and refugees from Communism, the brothers settled in Italy after 1956; and both pursued successful careers in journalism. Nicola died in 1985 and Giorgio died in 2017, now recognised as a major modern Italian writer, always conscious of the echoes between the languages and cultures he absorbed from Hungary, Italy and European Judaism.
Homage to the Eighth District
introduced the brothers into English, and their unusual composition for two pens has impressed readers across Europe and America for its high dignity and perfect artistic control. The style seems to issue from a single hand, the language seemingly raw and unadorned, yet deeply psychological with flashes of striking lyricism conveyed by Gerald Moore's fine translation.
"Bare narrative and bitter irony, but not without humour...Faced as we are with so much over-writing it is sobering to reflect on the Pressburgers' brevity, and to realize that humanity and the agony of oppression can be encompassed in a few well written pages." --
Times Literary Supplement
"History can be told in many ways, but the most memorable accounts often employ the techniques of fiction to tell the truth... A beautiful collection of tales. Where others are angry, the Pressburgers are wise." --
The Village Voice
"A clarity, tact and affection utterly devoid of nostalgic distortion." --
Independent on Sunday
"Opens a new and fascinating page in the grand passion of European Jewry..." --
Books of the Month
"In
- published in Italy only after rejection by several publishers - there are beautiful and harrowing stories of memorable characters like Ilona Weiss with her seven lovers or the disturbed Leuchtner, among the filthy market stalls and mysteries of the Temple, peeling hovels with inhabitants 'bearing in their eyes strange flashes of anxiety', all poised on the threshold of the huge historical tragedy of the Holocaust." --
Corriere della Sera
"History, but full of the feeling of fable." --
El País
"A Hungarian rhapsody." --
Panorama
"A vibrant portrait of a people who retained their courage and individuality under German and communist siege. Written in exile, the book is humourous and sad, nostalgic and proud, revealing a Hungary hitherto unknown." --
Cardiff Western Mail