As a reader you know what is coming, the horrors they will face, yet still you read the story afresh, from Andras' point of view - believing that perhaps Europe won't go to war, and perhaps his dreams of a life with Klara will come true. Then it turns, seamlessly, into a love story the story of Andras and Klara, of who they both are and whether they can ever possibly find a way to be together. The writing is shot through with the glamour and beauty of the city, portrayed against the poverty and sheer hard work by Andras in order to survive. The book's beginnings are in Paris, with a student lifestyle that is initially only slightly overshadowed by anti-semitism and the looming threat of war. I think this one works in a different way because it isn't a book that sets out to be about the holocaust, it's rather the story of a young man called Andras and how the war changed his life. The holocaust is all too horrifyingly familiar through books and films, yet it's a story that should never be forgotten, or stop being told. The stories of the genocide, the holocaust atrocities, felt fresh somehow newly horrifying and stomach-churning. Andras became terribly real to me and so, knowing the hand that history was about to deal him, my heart was in my mouth as I read, awaiting the tragedy that would surely occur.
There is a sense of sharing everything with these characters, experiencing their daily lives moment by moment. I feel as if I have lived several lifetimes whilst reading this novel. Yet for all its historical weightiness it is, once again, an emotional, moving piece of writing.
It has been seven years since that was published, and this looks, at first glance, to be an entirely different sort of book altogether. I loved her light touch, and the emotional intensity she managed to work into her stories. Julie Orringer's first book was a collection of short stories, about childhood and adolescence, grief and vulnerability. As the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andras, the book moves back to Hungary, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew up, to Budapest where his new family live and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungary. Andras' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of Paris, the theatres and the bars, as he struggles in his studies and falls in love with a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hide. It is 1937 and Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture in Paris. In a story that takes us from the elegance of Paris, through the streets of Budapest and on into the Hungarian countryside and the Ukraine this is an epic tale, masterfully told. I lived and breathed this brilliant, haunting novel from start to finish. Summary: Heavy to hold but incredible to read.
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