Szabó Magda - Disznótor

A lead gray sky pregnant with heavy snow clouds covers the small country town. In the family of teacher János Tóth, there will be a pig slaughter, and while they are preparing for the hearty dinner, unexpected events shatter the calm of everyday life, exploding contradictions that have been lurking under the surface for decades.
In the course of two days, the lives of two families are turned upside down. It belongs to two families, which are different from each other in everything, and whose destinies are nevertheless inextricably intertwined with the history of the twentieth century.
Coming from a poor background, János Tóth was taught by his widowed mother at the cost of incredible sacrifices. However, Tóth leaves her and his two brothers because he falls in love with Paula, the youngest daughter of the once wealthy landowners Kémery. He and his sister and younger brother are raised by the stingy, strict grandmother, from whom the children receive more beatings than love or food. It's no wonder, then, that after the haughty Paula forces herself on her younger brother's tutor, János Tóth, the man receives constant contempt and humiliation from the class. How long can a relationship be maintained that means everything to one party and nothing to the other?
Diznótor is a novel of buried secrets: a crime story with a dark tone and a shocking Greek tragedy at the same time.

Reading Diznótor awakened old, painful memories in me. After all, the religious, puritan Hajdúság, where the novel takes place, is also the scene of my own childhood, with all its beauty and drama. As Magda Szabó puts it, the book is "a message (...) from that former world to this one". From the world of my grandparents, lost in the past, in which there was no virtuality, people lived "real" lives, their actions had weight and consequences, and there was no alternative to honor. - ANIKÓ SÁNDOR