AN AMERICAN WOMAN

by Kati Matron ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 13, 1987

A Hungarian-born American reporter for network news returns to her birthplace and finds--among disjointed memories and old landmarks in Budapest, and among survivors of a Nazi past and a Communist present--a buried family history and identity, while as courier and reporter she influences current history: at a price. A cool mix of tragic family history, present angst and sleuthing through labyrinthian doom-shrouded wheels and deals. The story begins in a Hungarian prison, the same prison in which Anna Bator's parents had been kept after their trial for treason in the 50's. Anna, a successful journalist, had accepted an assignment to Hungary, to her father Alex's horror--the father who's become increasingly remote and isolated. But Anna will learn much of the history of this man, who for too long has kept from her the truth of her origins, and his own scarred life--as a Nazi victim, as a Spanish Loyalist, as a Party member, favored and betrayed. In Budapest, in addition to the attractive US Cultural attachÉ with whom she falls in love, Anna will interview: an elderly belle who tells the tale of Alex's life as a gentleman and the horrors of its dissolution; and two old friends (or enemies?), both Party men who alternately saved and damned. And why did Alex confess to a crime he didn't commit? At the close, Anna, through a surprise contact, outwits a Party move to invade a neighboring country. Prison and a lifetime of patient exile await. But Anna--and her father--return to their roots. Some far-fetched underground political maneuvers, familiar to readers of Cold War mysteries, plus an autumnal cast of political refugee history--told with prime-time efficiency and sternly authentic detail. (The author is a broadcaster for PBS, and her parents were Hungarian news correspondents, once both imprisoned and exiled.) Marton is the author of a biography of Raoul Wallenberg.

Pub Date: April 13, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION