Book blurb

My thoughts

1945 the war ends. The Germans who had entered Hungary in 1944 in order to keep the Hungarians on the Axis side were eventually pushed out by Russian soldiers. After a fifty day siege of Budapest with thousands of German and Hungarian deaths, thousands captured the city unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945.

Ilona is the daughter of a Baron but with the Russian invasion they lose their home, her father, her brother disappears and horrendous atrocities take place. Ilona and her mother move to Budapest. Later Ilona meets and marries Laci.

1956 the Hungarian people rise against their Russian rulers in Budapest.

With the 1956 Uprising Ilona loses her husband. She has her mother and son, Emil, to take care of but repercussions from Luca’s participation in the Uprising make things very difficult.

1974 Emil travels to a swim meet when he gets some bad news.

Ilona has made what she can of life to support her family when Emil goes missing she is visited by the secret police. Does she know where he is? No! Later she finds out that he has escaped to the USA where he is taken in by a family. He later meets and marries Melissa.

1991 Hungary has been free of Russian rule for a short period.

We open the story with a great event for Ilona. She is going to get a telephone installed in her home. She has never been allowed one previously because of her husband’s participation in the Uprising and her son’s defection. But who will she get calls from?

Like buses, when one good thing comes along so does a second. Ilona receives a letter from Emil saying he is coming to Budapest!He has a bursary for a photography project on ‘Hungary in Transition’. Can he and his wife and daughter stay with her? Ilona is delighted.

Ilona has had a hard life, still working in her sixties she gets to work early so she can collect the papers on her way and start her daily report for her boss, John, at the newspaper. She is accepting of her life on one level but also finds things hard. Still she goes to meetings with John and learns lots of things which can be useful. She’s a bit of a wheeler dealer and enjoys solving problems. She makes contacts and gets to know things like how the Government is encouraging foreign investment and that they are going to allow people to get back their property taken from them by the Communist regime. Ilona has a plan!

So we read of Emil’s return, his project, his mother’s plan and we go back and forth in time as we learn what happened to Ilona and her family in 1945, what happened at the uprising and how Ilona lost her job, why Emil defected in 1974 and what that action did to Ilona and her mother.

Ilona has friends Judit and her husband, but her best friend lives in the apartment across the hall from her. Erzsebét, Erzsi, lives with her son István. He and Emil were good friends too, when they were young.

Ilona wants her old home the Pálffy kastély back but Emil is not interested. Ilona thinks she can persuade him, thinking he could become a businessman like István and become wealthy but her scheming falls on its face. It comes to a head at a dinner party. Emil is furious and moves his family out of his mother’s home.

Ilona doesn’t want to lose her son again and unbeknown to him she helps with a problem that has occurred with his exhibition.

This is a story that has so much contained in it of Ilona’s life which goes hand in hand with Hungary’s recent history. A story that puts a personal perspective to the things that happened at important moments for Hungary and gives the reader a glimpse into what it was like and allows us to better understand what happened and how it affected the Hungarian people.

Alison Langley has written a wonderful story that brings life to what would otherwise be a collection of dry facts and has done it in a gentle, thoughtful and honest manner. It is a very moving story told well. There is humour, there is horror, there is love and there is hope.

I found the book interesting, moving, tense, amusing, appalling, full of terrific characters and totally worth reading.

Thanks

Thanks to the author Alison Langley for kindly inviting me to read and share my thoughts on her first novel Budapest Noir: Ilona Gets A Phone.

Thanks also to Dedalus Books for sending me a copy of the book.

Information

Published: Dedalus Books | Paperback: 10 May 2024 |320 PP | ISBN 978-1915568427

Buy: AmazonSmileUK |Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Your local bookshop | Your local library

Hungary

Britannica: Hungary from 1918 | BBC History File: The Hungarian Uprising (1956) | Hungary to 1989

Author

Alison Langley was born in Missouri, but grew up in Minnesota. After graduating from the University of Minnesota, she worked as a journalist in Connecticut and Maryland before moving in 1986 to Europe, where she covered events in Germany, Hungary, Austria and Switzerland. Most recently she taught journalism in Vienna. She lives in the Swiss Alps with her Irish husband and their dog Guido. Budapest Noir is her first novel.

Website: Alison Langley author | Alison Langley on X/Twitter | Alison Langley on Instagram

Winners: Irish Writers Centre novel fair 2022