Written in Kristof ’s spare, direct style, the novels are an exploration both of the aftereffects of trauma and of the nature of story-telling.‘At the heart of this acrid trilogy, in all its studied understatement and lack of portentousness, we can feel the author’s slow-burning rage at the wholesale erasure of certainty and continuity in the world of her childhood and adolescence. At the same time we sense Kristof saturninely enjoying this annihilation for its imaginative potential. She will reassemble a shattered world on her own rigorous terms, and watch us wince and shudder in the process.’ – Jonathan Keates, Times Literary Supplement

    At the present, when it is fashionable to speak of nationalities as 'imagined communities' or as transnational constructs 'created' by intellectuals\elites who may live in the historic 'national' homeland or in the diaspora, Carpatho-Rusyns provide an ideal example of a people made--or some would say still being made--before our very eyes. The book traces the evolution of Carpathian Rus' from earliest pre-historic times to the present and the complex manner in which a distinct Carpatho-Rusyn people, since the mid-nineteenth century, came into being, disappeared, and then re-appeared in the wake of the revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of Communist rule in central and eastern Europe. The book, while based on the author's four decades of erudition on the subject, eschews scholarly jargon and is written in an accessible reader-friendly style"--Provided by publisher.

    After numerous attempts to flee from a revolution torn Stalinist Hungary ending in capture and disappointment, the author’s parents’ pursuit to give their children a better life finally bears success as they walk to freedom across a well guarded and mine strewn border. This is a gripping tale of bravery and the will to survive, the sometimes heart-breaking struggle for freedom, and the wonder and difficulties inherent in starting a life in a new country.