But an abundance of unnecessary detail weighs down what is otherwise a lucid and politically intriguing character study. Few people were allowed to know the details of her life. Few knew the sacrifices she had made for other people. Emerence Szereds lived her life shrouded in mystery.

Szab is a master tension builder, and Emerence's demise (foretold in the novel's opening pages) is heartbreakingly rendered. Written as a confessional by a woman who believes she was responsible for her older friend’s death, The Door by Magda Szab tells a story of trust, love, and disappointment. Over the years, she reveals secrets about her childhood and her peripheral involvement in Hungary's troubled political past, ultimately inviting the narrator into her apartment, which she notoriously and suspiciously protects. They hire Emerence Szered s, a local peasant with an air of authority and 'strength like a Valkyrie.' Though Emerence initially proves an antagonistic worker attacking the narrator's belief in God, for instance she eventually develops a deep affection for, and reliance upon, her employers. After having their careers 'politically frozen,' the narrator and her husband (also a writer) begin to work again and seek out domestic help for their new home in Budapest.

The story opens in postwar Hungary, narrated from old age by the protagonist, who remains unnamed for much of the novel. In this poignant but long-winded novel by the late Hungarian author Szab, a writer recounts her decades-long relationship with and eventual betrayal of her enigmatic and emotionally volatile housekeeper.

The door magda szabo review