Iza's ballad
By: Magda Szabó ; translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes
Contributors: Szirtes, George, 1948- translator
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 328
ISBN-13: 9780099532385
Subjects: Fiction
Work titles: Pilátus
Description: When Ettie's husband dies, her daughter Iza insists that her mother give up the family house in the countryside and move to Budapest. Displaced from her community and her home, Ettie tries to find her place in this new life, but can't seem to get it right. She irritates the maid, hangs food outside the window because she mistrusts the fridge and, in her naivety and loneliness, invites a prostitute in for tea. It is the story of a woman who loses her life's companion and a mother trying to get close to a daughter whom she has never truly known. It is about the meeting of the old-fashioned and the modern worlds and the beliefs we construct over a lifetime.
Notes: First published: London : Harvill Secker, 2014.

Originally published in Hungarian as: Pilátus. Budapest : Magvetö, 1963.