First published 2010
Andras Lévi steps off the train in Paris with his scholarship papers and a letter he promised to deliver. The Hungarian Jewish student has come to study architecture, but the letter draws him into something far more complex. When he meets its recipient, he falls into a relationship that exposes a dangerous secret. This revelation will reshape not only his own future but the fate of his entire family back in Hungary. As Europe slides toward war, Andras must navigate between his dreams of becoming an architect and the mounting threats that will soon engulf Jewish communities across the continent. The story follows the Lévi family from their small town of Konyár through the cultural heights of Budapest and Paris, then into the nightmare of labor camps. Julie Orringer traces how ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances, showing how love and family bonds endure even when everything else crumbles.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Paris, Hungary, Konyár, Budapest
Period: 1930s, 1940s
602 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: war