Iza's Ballad (New York Review Books Classics)

Synopsis

When Vince, a courageous magistrate and beloved husband, dies, his widow Ettie leaves her small provincial home to live with her daughter Iza in Budapest. Ettie is proud of Iza, a successful doctor and former resistance fighter, and is eager to do whatever her daughter thinks is best. Iza, in turn, believes she is caring for her mother exactly as she should.

But mother and daughter come from profoundly different worlds. Ettie’s life has been shaped by hardship, tradition, marriage, and sacrifice, while Iza belongs to a rapidly modernizing postwar Hungary. Despite their love and good intentions, they struggle to understand one another, and their attempts to care for each other gradually widen the distance between them.

About the Author

Magda Szabó (1917–2007) was one of Hungary’s most celebrated writers. She wrote novels, poetry, memoir, and children’s literature, and received numerous literary honors, including the Kossuth Prize. Her novels The Door, Katalin Street, and Iza’s Ballad have brought her work an international readership.

George Szirtes is a Hungarian-born British poet, writer, and translator. He translated Iza’s Ballad from the Hungarian and provides the introduction to this edition.

Publisher

New York Review Books

Publication Date

October 18, 2016

Format

Paperback

Pages

352

Subjects

Behind the Iron Curtain · Literary Fiction · Hungarian Literature · Fiction in Translation · Family · Mother-Daughter Relationships · Postwar Europe

ISBN

9781681370347