The Door [Paperback]

Magda Szabo (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1843431939 | ISBN-13: 978-1843431930 | Publication Date: August 23, 2005

A busy young writer struggling to cope with domestic chores, hires a housekeeper recommended by a friend. The housekeeper's reputation is one built on dependable efficiency, though she is something of an oddity. Stubborn, foul-mouthed and with a flagrant disregard for her employer's opinions she may even be crazy. She allows no-one to set foot inside her house; she masks herself with a veil and is equally guarded about her personal life. And yet Emerence is revered as much as she is feared. As the story progresses, her energy and passion to help becomes clear, extinguishing any doubts arising out of her bizarre behaviour. A stylishly told tale which recounts a strange relationship built up over 20 years between a writer and her housekeeper. After an unpromising and caustic start, benign feelings develop and ultimately the writer benefits from what becomes an inseparable relationship. Simultaneously we learn Emerence's tragic past which is revealed in snapshots throughout this book.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hungarian --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

MAGDA SZABO was born in 1917 in Debrecen (Hungary). She began her literary career as a poet. In the 50s she disappeared from the publishing scene for political reasons and survived on teaching and translations from the French and the English. It was then she began writing novels. In 1978, Magda was awarded the Kossuth Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Hungary. She is one the most famous living writers in Hungary today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harvill Press (August 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843431939
• ISBN-13: 978-1843431930
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic & charismatic, November 9, 2005

By 

Lili_K (Hungary) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Door (Hardcover)

At a first glance the novel seems to be simple: the book is about the relationship between two women: an author and her housekeeper. However, if you stuck strictly to this statement, you'd be oversimplifying the book and what it is about. As you go through the pages events of the past in flashes come to the surface, making the end shocking and dramatic.

Magda Szabo is one of the most charismatic writers of our time: her books are highly popular in Hungary and abroad. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Her charisma can be strongly felt in her novels as well. Reading her books is like putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together: at the end all pieces come to their place and the reader is left breathless with the dramatic and cruel fate the characters are/were bound to face. It is fate looming over people, unavoidable in Szabo's books, arising from the circumstances and personality of the characters.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The little lady downstairs, February 11, 2004

By 

Jacqueline Karp - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Door (Hardcover)

This is a story that could be the story of anyone's forgotten grandmother. And much more besides. Set in Budapest, Magda Szabo's writer-narrator tells us, in a style that literally pours itself out on the page and won't let go of the reader, of her relationship with the little lady downstairs, the old concierge who started out as her housekeeper and ended up ruling her life. It is a bewildering tale of love-hate relationships, set against a vague backcloth of communist Hungary and the aftermath of world war II; it is also an analysis of guilt and an apology for tolerance of people's varied beliefs, and the final scenes make one wonder if the narrator isn't apologising for her country and not only herself.

For once also, here is a novel which accords an important place to the role of animals in our lives. Viola, the dog, has an important part to play, and the detailed and profound observation of animal behaviour is perhaps one of the most remarkable aspects of the book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something New, February 18, 2007

By 

Heather Gemmen Wilson - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Door (Paperback)

Who would have thought that a story about an old woman who dies would be interesting? Old women die all the time. And I certainly never would have believed that the life of an orderly writer in front of her typewriter would hold anyone's attention ... especially mine. But I was flipping the pages of this novel faster than I would any Kootz book and crying over the tragedies of this character as much as any of Charlotte Bronte's.

There may be nothing new under the sun, including plots and characters, but good writing can make something old something powerful--and excellent fiction opens our eyes so we see reality truthfully.