Sebestyen’s narrative moves from the tumultuous streets of Budapest to the inner sanctums of the Kremlin and the White House, where we hear the conversations of the men and women who planned and took part in the uprising and of those who helped crush it–some actively, others through craven inaction.Sebestyen shows how Western anti-Communist rhetoric encouraged the rebels and convinced them they would receive help. We witness the thrilling first days when, armed with a few rifles, petrol bombs, and desperate courage, the people of Budapest rose up against their Soviet masters and nearly succeeded in routing the Russian forces. For a few exciting days, as the Western world watched in amazement, it looked as though the Hungarians would win and humble the Soviet Union. Russian troops withdrew. But not for long.The Soviets showed they would resort to brutal lengths to cling to their Communist empire–and the West was prepared to let them. The free world looked on in sympathy and horror, did nothing, and, finally, the Hungarians suffered a devastating defeat, and remained under Soviet occupation for three more decades. Fast-paced, vivid, and authoritative, Twelve Days adds immeasurably to our understanding of one of the most important battles of the Cold War and reminds us–through the extraordinary courage and sacrifice of the Hungarian people in their doomed fight–of the unquenchable human desire for freedom.

    In 1847, with Europe on the verge of revolution, Katie Kettles travels to Hungary as governess to the family of Count Istvan Szelenyi. On the journey, she first encounters Lajos Lazar making incendiary speeches from a table-top in Vienna. Though instantly drawn to him, he is not her only distraction from her duties, for Katie has her own vengeful agenda which begins to stutter as she reluctantly becomes involved with the Szelenyis' lives and loves. While Hungary plunges into political upheaval, Katie faces a personal revolution to resolve both her family issues and her passionate relationship with Lajos. Through Katie's eyes, we see the euphoria of a bloodless revolution victorious over an unjust and stagnant regime, and the tragedy of a lost war that was so very nearly won.

    The Mongol, Ottoman, Habsburg, Nazi and Soviet empires have all since vanished; but Hungary, a victim of all five and despite suffering the consequences of being on the losing side in every war she has fought, still occupies the territory the Magyar tribes claimed for themselves in the ninth century. The eleven hundred years covered by this stirring account embrace medieval greatness, Turkish occupation, Habsburg domination, unsuccessful struggles for independence, massive deprivation of territory and population after the First World War, a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany motivated by the hope of redress, and forty years of Soviet-imposed Communism interrupted by a gallant but brutally suppressed revolution in 1956.

    The rise of fascism in Slovakia destroyed the peaceful co-existence of the Jews with their Slovak neighbours and demoralized both groups. The threat of deportation of Jews from Slovakia to Auschwitz forced Gerti and her parents to flee to Hungary, where deportations of Jews to Auschwitz had not yet begun. There the family lived under an assumed identity. The dangers and isolation associated with this existence plunged Gerti into depression and forced her to learn skills of deception to survive. As Hitler's grip on Hungary tightened and the dangers for Jews in Hungary increased, Gerti's father was arrested. Gerti and her mother had to flee to Slovakia in the spring of 1944, where they assumed yet further false identities. During the summer of 1944 Gerti met her childhood friend Walter (Rudi Vrba), who escaped from Auschwitz and told Gerti about his first-hand experience of witnessing the mass murders there. With time the remaining few Jews in Slovakia were rounded up. Gerti and her mother were denounced and taken to the Gestapo. The knowledge of the death factories waiting for them encouraged Gerti to take a serious risk and escape. Her mother, however, gave up hope and stayed to perish in a concentration camp. Gerti, then on her own, returned to Budapest and lived through the round up of Jews and the siege, assuming the identity of a Hungarian refugee from Russian-occupied Hungary. To survive, she had to use her hard-learned skills in assessing who she could trust and whom she had to deceive.

    A comprehensive illustrated guide to more than 80 fascinating and unusual historical sights in one of Europe‘s great capital cities:• Hidden caves, Turkish baths, eccentric museums and forgotten cemeteries• From the Romans and the Magyars to the Habsburgs and the Soviets• The Children's Railway, Rabbit Island, Ruin Pubs and the Hospital in the Rock• Gül Baba, the Saviour of Mothers, Harry Houdini, a much-loved empress and the mystery of Raoul Wallenberg• Recommended for visitors to Budapest wishing to discover something a little different, as well as for those inhabitants who perhaps thought they already knew the city