BOY ON THE ROOFTOP

by Tamas Szabo ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This is an excellent, moving account of a childhood lost. The author, now 17, recalls the brief days of the October '56 Hungarian uprising when he and his friends fought that empty battle through the streets of Budapest. After the students had posted their 16-point demand in the city and the general strike had begun, Tamas and his friend Feri joined with a group of young people who were receiving arms from the soldiers and they became a part of that hastily improvised resistance which enjoyed only a stab of exhilaration in a victory that was to prove crushingly and brutally false. Soon after they killed an AVO officer the boys were captured, were aided in their escape, again by a soldier. In the closing days of the Revolution they were picked up by the Russians, packed in a railroad car enroute to the Soviet Union. At the Budapest East Station they were rescued, made their way home and at Tamas' parents insistence, fled across the Austrian border to safety and a bittersweet freedom.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown-AMP

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION