THE MERMAIDS

Presumably translated from the Hungarian, this novel of a tuberculosis sanatorium is shaded by the intimations of mortality; death is a haunting presence- and love a recessive, evasive illusion. Certainly for Aladar who meets Lalla Pirola only once- in Budapest, returns to visit her in the sanatorium at first weekly- then more frequently, and is drawn into the special world she shares with her friends Kati and Franciska, their flickering moods of frivolity and despair. As time goes on, Aladar learns that Lalla is seriously and possibly incurably ill; Kati's death and Franciska's brief leave make Aladar increasingly restive at being the ""eternal visitor"". But his attempt to ask for something more ends in a bitter revelation... A delicate, disconsolate idyll of a ""twilight dream"", handled with exceptional sensitivity.