A gem. Fascinating, nuanced, old-fashioned in the best meaning of the word and having this typical "Hungarian" quality (which is my personal pet peeve).
This novel documents the dedicated way to love and to live. The courage, the will and the passion to go on in spite of the dark time, in spite of the possibility of a very short future.

Miklós, a young Hungarian war survivor, is reconvalescing in Sweden. When faced with the diagnosis of terminal illness, he decides to press on and to marry instead. So he writes 117 identical letters to fellow Hungarian girls in Sweden (they all are from his Debrecen region and under thirty). Some of them answers. One of them is Lili. This is their both unbelievable and very believable story.

The author has mercy with me to say openly at the beginning of the novel that this is a story of his parents, so I has not been scared for Miklós and Lili, the young lovers, and I was able to fill my heart with the admiration for them. When you saw the darkness, you can find the fervor to try - even if it was more emotion in motion for them than the rational, cognitive decision. They follow their hearts like birds travelling to the south, like the fish travelling the seas. And they are right to do so.

The tenderness and the nuanceness of this novel is enchanting. It is written with civility, with imagination, quietly - and yet the love story is very visible in its smallness.

The author knows how to paint pictures with his words. Just a few sentences here and there about the horrors of the war or the coming communism - and yet, you are there in the moments of evil and/or pain and disappointment.

Also the "Hungarian" quality. I am not Hungarian, but I have Hungarian friends and I love the country. So I am able to see and identify the very Hungarian soul present here, the heart-tugging passion, the true call of their blood pulsing in the veins.

I am glad for the possibility to read this book.
Recommended read.