The Door - Magda Szabó (tr. Lex Rix)

Magda Szabó (1917 - 2007) was one of the best-known Hungarian novelists, although her novels have only recently been translated into English. In this novel, Szabó explores the complex and precarious relationship between creative and domestic work. In "The Door", the protagonist is a female writer living with her husband (also a writer) in communist Hungary, in Budapest. Their writing had been banned, but now that they have been allowed to write again, Szabó's protagonist hires a woman to help her with the chores so that she can devote more time to her writing. What follows is a complex and sometimes bizarre tale of the relationship between the two women that ultimately grows into a mutual dependency. It is a novel where not much happens superficially, but that offers deep and unsettling insights about human relationships, belonging and love.

Emerence is a domestic servant – strong, fierce, eccentric, and with a reputation for being a first-rate housekeeper. When Magda, a young Hungarian writer, takes her on she never imagines how important this woman will become to her. It takes twenty years for a complex trust between them to be slowly, carefully built. But Emerence has secrets and vulnerabilities beneath her indomitable exterior which will test Magda’s friendship and change the complexion of both their lives irreversibly.

France’s Prix Femina Étranger for the French translation

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