Translated from Hungarian to English for the New York Review Books Classics series, The Door is a literary heavyweight of the best kind.
Magda Szabo’s novel is a simple story of friendship between two women, one an aspiring author and one an older uneducated woman, which turns into a complicated battle of wills.
Emerence is the elder woman who seems never to tire of all of her daily chores which she performs for neighbors. Her character is not one to be quickly forgotten – at once simple, but as time reveals, truly complex. Recommended for fans of Elena Ferrante.
Further reading: “The Door, by Magda Szabo,” Claude Massaud, New York Times Sunday Book Review, February 6, 2015.
–Contributed by Karen A.