Buy new:
$15.95
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$15.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 2 hrs 35 mins
Only 19 left in stock (more on the way).
$$15.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$5.79
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Used book that is clean, average condition without any missing pages. Used book that is clean, average condition without any missing pages. See less
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$15.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Magda Szabó
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Katalin Street (New York Review Books Classics) Paperback – September 12, 2017

by Magda Szabo (Author), Len Rix (Translator)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 246 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$15.95","priceAmount":15.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"gOcInzoQFiw%2BQOQTTjeih7s3CCJz4QmOUC5Ha%2FV5G%2FFGSdhvQ%2FLqLL3aaIchESXsVNx6rENfSZojuK6nFHbtR5oDfUefb%2FqxSIPxrhNGRbwjIlWMmywHn9KmICG99I%2BuoPOT6tg5mp1hLwmMVmCOlw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$5.79","priceAmount":5.79,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"5","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"79","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"gOcInzoQFiw%2BQOQTTjeih7s3CCJz4QmOxCQCAM8QQcd1gKBOeGUvJoYROOk6kRBDRhszzRhrzkkYZmj2lo1ScU1%2FXebePc4nu8%2FB6TsTcPRgKApWYtNjdqD6pKTD4VY%2ByS6hGUlfUcP26UwjGYXWWk%2FDZHSI%2FlI%2BDJ1gJezSykCOI6zziqmVeqv%2Bv5okBAWG","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

WINNER OF THE 2018 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE

From the author of The Door, selected as one of the New York Times "10 Best Books of 2015," this is a heartwrenching tale about a group of friends and lovers torn apart by the German occupation of Budapest during World War II.

In prewar Budapest three families live side by side on gracious Katalin Street, their lives closely intertwined. A game is played by the four children in which Bálint, the promising son of the Major, invariably chooses Irén Elekes, the headmaster’s dutiful elder daughter, over her younger sister, the scatterbrained Blanka, and little Henriette Held, the daughter of the Jewish dentist.

Their lives are torn apart in 1944 by the German occupation, which only the Elekes family survives intact. The postwar regime relocates them to a cramped Soviet-style apartment and they struggle to come to terms with social and political change, personal loss, and unstated feelings of guilt over the deportation of the Held parents and the death of little Henriette, who had been left in their protection. But the girl survives in a miasmal afterlife, and reappears at key moments as a mute witness to the inescapable power of past events.

As in The Door and Iza’s Ballad, Magda Szabó conducts a clear-eyed investigation into the ways in which we inflict suffering on those we love. Katalin Street, which won the 2007 Prix Cévennes for Best European novel, is a poignant, somber, at times harrowing book, but beautifully conceived and truly unforgettable.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    248 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    NYRB Classics
  4. Publication date
    September 12, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    4.98 x 0.54 x 7.97 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1681371529
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1681371528
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Katalin Street (New York Review Books Classics)
$15.95
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 19 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Abigail (New York Review Books Classics)
$14.95
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Iza's Ballad (New York Review Books Classics)
$14.73
Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15
Only 11 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

From the Publisher

Iza's Ballad Katalin Street The Door Abigail by Magda Szabo
Iza's Ballad Katalin Street The Door Abigail
See Details
Customer Reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
190
4.0 out of 5 stars
246
4.2 out of 5 stars
3,206
4.4 out of 5 stars
851
Price $14.73 $15.95 $12.49 $11.99
About this book The profoundly moving story of a mother, Ettie, who moves in with her daughter Iza after the death of her husband. A heartwrenching tale about a group of friends and lovers torn apart by the German occupation of Budapest during World War II. An unsettling exploration of the relationship between Magda, an educated and public-spirited writer, and Emerence, an illiterate and seemingly ageless peasant. A coming-of-age story set in WWII at a strict, Hungarian school for girls.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Katalin Street, the past is never dormant, never settled. The past is an open wound, a life force busily shaping an increasingly bewildering present. In describing Henriette's plight, Szabó writes: 'From the moment she arrived she had been left to work out the rules and the customs of the place entirely by herself.' In this extraordinary novel, the same could be said for the living." —Laura van den Berg, The New York Times Book Review

“The story of four neighboring families in Budapest whose lives are upended by World War II, Szabo's bewitching novel is the most convincing ghost story I've ever read. You feel this towering Hungarian novelist might have actually figured out the mystery of the afterlife.”—Nell Freudenberger, The Week

"Szabó sketches an unforgettable portrait of the Elekes family. . . . This is the rare book that you’ll finish and want to go right back to the beginning to reread the first two chapters, if only to better understand Irén’s fate." —Priyanka Kumar, Santa Fe New Mexican

"[Szabó's] prose is a powerful reminder of just how resonant the relationship between language and memory can be, especially when entangled within the matrices of families and communities living under the shadow of fascism . . . [Katalin Street] is a brightly shining star in the Szabó universe, offering us a glimpse of Eastern Europe at a time when we need to be reminded of what happened there more than ever." —World Literature Today

"Magda Szabó's moving novel Katalin Street explores the way the past is alive in the present, still shaping life in mysterious ways that are hard to understand. . . . Eliciting a bittersweet beauty, Katalin Street is a powerful novel about life, death and humanity's elusive sense of place and purpose." —Scott Neuffer, Shelf Awareness

"A gorgeous elegy for the joy and the life once shared among three neighboring families—the Elekes, the Temes, and the Helds—in prewar Budapest . . . Readers will be impressed by the brilliant texture and forthrightness of Szabó’s prose, along with the particular urgency she infuses into the humiliations and irrational longings that comprise her characters’ lives, even or especially during the shock of war. . . . This is a brilliant and unforgettable novel." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Three families, whose lives are inextricably linked by the street they inhabit, grapple with love and morality amid political upheaval. In English for the first time and impeccably translated by Rix, Szabó's quietly captivating novel excavates the tangled history of Hungary's capital from the portentous moments before the German occupation to its suffocating postwar regime. . . . A visceral, sweeping depiction of life in the shuddering wake of wartime.” —Kirkus, starred review

About the Author

Magda Szabó (1917–2007) was born into an old Protestant family in Debrecen, Hungary’s “Calvinist Rome,” on the eastern side of the great Hungarian plain. Szabó., whose father taught her to converse with him in Latin, German, English, and French, attended the University of Debrecen, studying Latin and Hungarian, and went on to work as a teacher throughout the German and Soviet occupations of Hungary in 1944 and 1945. In 1947, she published two volumes of poetry, Bárány (The Lamb) and Vissza az emberig (Return to Man), for which she received the Baumgarten Prize in 1949. Under Communist rule, the prize was repealed and her work was banned, and Szabó. turned to writing fiction. Her first novel, Freskó (Fresco), came out in 1958, followed closely by Az őz (The Fawn). In 1959 she won the József Attila Prize, after which she went on to write many more novels, among them Katalin utca (Katalin Street, 1969), Ókút (The Ancient Well, 1970), Régimódi történet (An Old-Fashioned Tale, 1971), and Az ajtó (The Door, 1987). Szabó also wrote verse for children, plays, short stories, and nonfiction, including a tribute to her husband, Tibor Szobotka, a writer and translator who died in 1982. A member of the European Academy of Sciences and a warden of the Calvinist Theological Seminary in Debrecen, Szabó. died in the city in which she was born, a book in her hand.

Len Rix is a poet, critic, and former literature professor who has translated six books by Antal Szerb, including the novel Journey by Moonlight (available as an NYRB Classic) and, most recently, The Martian’s Guide to Budapest. In 2006 he was awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for his translation of Magda Szabó’s The Door (also available as an NYRB Classic), which was one of The New York Times Book Review’s ten best books of 2015.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYRB Classics (September 12, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681371529
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681371528
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.019 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.98 x 0.54 x 7.97 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 246 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Magda Szabó

Magda Szabó

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
246 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Elizabeth K. Claussen
5.0 out of 5 stars A book that speaks to me
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2018
Verified Purchase
Am Hungarian, born in Budapest in 1944, but emigrated with my family to America when I was about five. This book encapsulates the history of Hungary during the period of the two world wars, the 1956 revolution, and then up through the early 1960’s, in a way that strikes me as very authentic because focusing on this one family and their connection with their home street, neighborhood, country. I found it to resonate with the way my heart and understanding feels and thinks about it all.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
D. A. Fisher
4.0 out of 5 stars A minor classic of pre and post WWII Budapest
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2020
Verified Purchase
Luminous style. The prewar Budapest about 3 literally close neighbors os different back grounds all more or less
getting along torn asunder by W.W. II. well described cast of characters all interesting in their own idiosyncratic
way. The time lines of the chapters are a bit confusing. Some chapters don't identify who is narrating until the next page which is frustrating. Well worth reading but not to be read in one sitting for one needs time to gain insight into
them and the fine prose is well worth savoring.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Helen
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book but ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2017
Verified Purchase
Interesting book. Well written.Something different. But it is a total muddle and made no sense for the first few dozen pages, and I almost gave it up. I re-read the beginning 50 or so pages after I had finished the whole book, and would have preferred to know all that
was at the beginning at the end. Really.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jeanajoan
5.0 out of 5 stars First class writing
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021
Verified Purchase
Another excellent book by this great writer. I worried it was about to veer into fantasy, which it sort of did, but it worked very well and poignantly.
Helpful
 Report
Bert Carelli
4.0 out of 5 stars A Journey into "What if?"
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
A young girl is tragically killed due to the banal consequence of war and the thoughtless act of a friend. She then wanders outside of time as the place of her upbringing and the people she knew continue their lives amidst strife and hardship. The author artfully explores the consequences of this scenario - showing through various perspectives how the cherished life of our memories and painful mundane reality occupy the same space.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Susan Lang
5.0 out of 5 stars A very true story.
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2020
Verified Purchase
I grew up in hungary and was there during and after the war..this story talked to me on many levels. I gave it to my friends to read to better understand me.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
SW
3.0 out of 5 stars Strange tale
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019
Verified Purchase
An unusual story about WWII. A bit confusing at times and not a very satisfactory tale. Not sure there were any likeable characters in this story. But well written.
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2017
Verified Purchase
Good story but plot doesn't flow smoothly and tough to follow the characters.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

gerardpeter
5.0 out of 5 stars Lost Souls
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2021
Verified Purchase
The story told here is straightforward, but the meaning of this novel is hard to determine. Mainstream reviews agree on the former but diverge on the latter. It is widely praised as a profound piece of writing.

The outline is clear enough. In the street of the title three families live next to each other and four children form an intense bond, a bond that grips them for the rest of their lives. It begins in 1934 and ends in 1968. Hungary’s wretched history has a huge impact on the characters.

It is not however a historical saga of the usual kind. Events are hinted at and alluded to – I assume Szabo’s readers would be familiar with them when the novel was written [in 1969]. The traumas are real enough but are mediated by family relationships which are in themselves more damaging. People cannot adapt either to the changes in their world or simply to growing up. None of the children can forge a destiny – they find no happiness or security or meaning.

Much of the narration is offered by Henriette. The twist is that she is dead but is as lost in the spirit world as the other children are in the real world, to which she returns in her search for place.

This is obviously a philosophical novel about existence and purpose. Yet it is not just about ideas nor is it an “experimental” piece of work. The characters are very real and the drama is very moving. I did not feel bothered whether Henriette was a ghost or a soul or totally imaginary – she fulfilled the needs of the novelist. There is such a sadness in her witnessing the emptiness of Iren, Blanka and Balint and the sweet impossible yearnings of being forever 16.
3 people found this helpful
 Report
J. Burman
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on March 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
Very finely done.
Report
Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars BORING!
Reviewed in Canada on December 4, 2017
Verified Purchase
Thank goodness I bought it when it was only $5.99 and no tax to boot.
Please do not even think of buying this book. I noticed it is now &9.99.
Imagine if the NY Times calling this a classic. Crap!
Report
Ralph Blumenau
3.0 out of 5 stars A potentially good book, spoilt by whimsies and some inconsistencies
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2020
Verified Purchase
Before the war, three families had lived in adjacent houses in Budapest’s Katalin Street: the Ekeles family (Mr and Mrs Ekeles and their daughters Iren and Blanka); the Biro family (Major Biro, his son Balint, and his housekeeper/mistress Mrs Temes who had helped to raise Balint); and the Held family (Mr and Mrs Held and their daughter Henriette). The three houses had been requisitioned by the government for social housing for old people. In the first, undated, chapter the Ekeles family now lived in a small, cramped, untidy and depressing flat on the opposite side of the Danube, within sight of their former home. (In a later chapter, the description of their new home is quite different.)

Despite the Dramatis Personae at the beginning of the novel, the relationships between these characters in the second, also undated, chapter is so utterly confusing that I nearly gave up. How did Blanka finish up in Greece?
But the following chapters, each dedicated to what happened to the characters in a particular year (1934, 1944, 1952, and 1956) are more straightforward; but those dedicated to 1961, and 1968) are very weird.

We get the experiences of the different characters in those years – mostly recalled by Iren Ekeles, who was born in 1927 - and giving vivid psychological pictures of the different characters, all sharply different, and some of them rather extreme and changeable. For the 1944, 1952 and 1956 chapters there are references to the political events (the German occupation in 1944, communist rule in 1952, and the Hungarian uprising in 1956.

The German occupation was bad for them all, but particularly for the Held family, who were of Jewish origin. On the day when Iren and Balint had an engagement party (we are told that it was not the first marriage of either of them, but are given no further details here) the Held parents were taken away, and their daughter Henriette met her end. It is a heart-breaking chapter.

By the 1952 chapter, Hungary was under communist rule. The Biro house had been expropriated: Major Biro had died in the war, and in 1949 Balint had returned from arrest (we are not told why he had been arrested): he and Mrs Temes were now living in the Ekeles household. Balint was much changed, and did not want to marry. After a show-down with Iren, he moved out. So did Blanka, who had been driven out by her father, though he mother and Iren surreptitiously remained in touch with her. She is a changeable, impulsive and unpredictable personality, and she had played an unforgivable part in Balint being dismissed from the Budapest hospital in which they both worked, and being sent to work in the country. She was complimented for her role as a vigilant party member, though the charges against Balint were not political. We really have no idea what her motives had been.

The 1956 chapter is partly told from Balint’s point of view. He had actually been quite happy working in the country, and returned to Budapest only for the process of rehabilitation and compensation, during the brief period of the Hungarian uprising, and a friend of his was the new Director of the hospital. He was invited to return to the hospital. Blanka was about to face a tribunal for what she had done. Balint sought her out. Strangely, he not only harboured no resentment about what she had done, but even gave her money to enable her to leave the country. Iren had married a man called Pali and had a little daughter, Kinga; but when she heard that Balint had returned, she told Pali that she would leave him and marry Balint. She had not even met him yet, and it will take six years before Balint will ask her to leave Pali and marry him. When she does meet Balint, it is just after he had enabled Blanka to leave for the West, but he is no more than friendly towards her.

The 1961 chapter is totally surrealistic. It begins with the ghost of Henriette, who re-visits various scenes in the past, but also visits Blanca in her new home in Greece. She claims to have paid all these visits in bodily form, but no one had ever recognized her. Only when she appeared to Balint, whom she had loved so dearly, did he speak to her - but took her for a prostitute.

Then the chapter switches back to Iren. Five years after she had told Pali that she would leave him and marry Balint, the latter asks her to do just that.

The 1968 chapter is another one about the ghost of Henriette. It makes even less sense than the last time.

There are many good things about the book; but the whimsies in it, as well as a few inconsistencies in the story, quite spoilt it for me.
One person found this helpful
 Report
P. D. Rayfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Lucid, moving and to be read at a sitting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2019
Verified Purchase
A superb, lucid book, very moving an impossible to put down, it is brilliantly translated by Len Rix. And this was a second-hand copy indistinguishable from new.
Report