Summary of Tranquility
Andor is a writer who lives with his domineering mother in a small flat in Budapest. His father and sister have fled to the West, and the Communist government of Hungary is punishing him and his mother as a result. The novel “Tranquility” tells the story of Andor’s struggle to escape his mother’s control and how he falls in love with a Romanian woman who helps him finish his book, while in the background, the Communist regime in Hungary is beginning to collapse.
Reasons to read Tranquility
“Tranquility” is a psychological portrait of a dysfunctional family in Communist-era Budapest. Attila Bartis is a Romanian – Hungarian writer, playwright, and photographer who has received several major Hungarian literary awards, including the Sándor Márai Prize in 2002 and the Attila JĂłzsef Prize in 2005. The English translation of “Tranquility” won the American “Best Translated Book Award” in 2009. The novel was adapted into a Hungarian film in 2008, titled “Nyugalom”.
Setting: Budapest (Hungary)
Original title: A nyugalom
Year of publication: 2001
Nr of pages: 292
