Liberation

Liberation was written in 1945 only a few months after the end of the siege of Budapest. The novel describes the horror of the end of the German occupation, the barbarity of the Fascistic Arrow Cross nationalist party and the eventual liberation of the people of the city by the Russian army.

Sandor Marai, one of Europe's outstanding novelists, creates a masterful and intensely moving account of the siege of Budapest; an atrocity witnessed by the author first-hand, that we see now through the eyes of a young woman.

It is the winter of 1944-5. The Germans, determined to impose their Final Solution, have occupied Hungary. The Russians surround the capital and a violent offensive between warring armies begins. As bombs fall from both sides, the remaining inhabitants, entrapped by violence, retreat to the depths of the city for refuge.

Among them is Elisabeth who hides along with many others in the confines of a huge cellar, hoping for her own safety and that of her father, a scientist who is a particular target of the fascist Arrow Cross assassins. She bears witness to the violent, moral disintegration of civilization that tests even the most compassionate and courageous.

Eventually, the door of the cellar is opened, but what will be her liberation?