Castles Burning - Softcover

Denes, Magda

4.12

280 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1862300097 ISBN 13: 9781862300095

Publisher: Anchor Books, 1998

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In 1944, Magda Denes was ten years old and living in Budapest with her mother, adored brother Ivan, grandparents, aunt and cousin Erwin. Hungarian Jews were finding their lives more and more desperate, Indiscriminately murdered, tortured and abused by the brutal occupying German forces, they were barricaded into underground ghettoes. Magda's grandfather died of starvation. Ivan and Erwin, both resistance fighters, were shot. Somehow the depleted family escaped, made their way to Spain, and then by boat to the free world - to America, and to a new life. This is an account of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, narrated from the view of a precociously brilliant child.

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Review:

Castles Burning is the story of Magda, a young Jewish girl in war-torn Budapest. The author, Magda Denes, wrote this memoir of her Holocaust experience in the strong, honest voice of her childhood self, leaving her memories unrefined by later acquired adult experience. Magda lived through unspeakable deprivation and horror, hidden from German soldiers and Hungarian Nazis, as she attempted to survive the insanity that engulfed her and her family. The Russian invasion and the withdrawal of the Germans did little to restore any sense of normalcy in Magda's life. After the war, Magda and her family still had to confront their losses and attempt to deal with the many ways they had been changed. For Magda, the loss of her childhood and the painful set of memories she carries burden her most, keeping her distant from her mother and father and preventing her from ever receiving the tenderness her weary soul desires. Denes's story takes her from Hungary to France, then Cuba and on to the United States, creating an incredible family story full of horrifying adventures, by turns both sad and comic. But the precious creation of this book is the unforgettable childhood of Magda, a gem forged under ungodly pressure.

About the Author:

Magda Denes is a professor in the postdoctoral programs in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at Adelphi University and New York University, and a faculty member and supervisor in the department of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

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