Szobotka Tibor - Züzü and vendégei

"Crowd shared apartments in Buda, repressed desires and fears, complicated human relationships, complicated loves are presented to us in Tibor Szobotka's classic novel set in 1956.
Professor Pándy and his daughter, Kornélia, are reminded of their old life by only one or two beautiful paintings, the piano and books. They are forced to share their spacious apartment with wild strangers who constantly invade their lives with their constant noise and curiosity.
But do these two really know each other? What do they know about the other's feelings and hidden desires? Kornélia feels that the forced isolation almost suffocates her, so she flees into the arms of Ákos, the poet. For a long time, he did not have the heart to tell his father about the "sinful" relationship, who also belatedly confesses: he proposed to the pretty singer, Lilike, in the romantic twilight of a Buda pastry shop. Pándy doesn't even know that the beautiful woman has been trying to get a husband for years, because she is afraid of loneliness.
However, the secrets are fatefully revealed, since Ákos, Kornélia, Pándy and Lilike are also members of the fine, gentlemen's company that gathers weekly in the salon of Züzü, the former celebrated actress. Superficial chatter, the fear-preserved appearance of past success and prosperity can only hide the truth for a while.
The spark of their hesitant love and immature political ambitions is ignited in the autumn of 1956. The wind of change sweeps through Züzü's stale-looking salon like a tornado, and the fate of the people who visit there takes a dramatic turn. It seems that appearances are coming to an end, the possibility of freedom and individual happiness attracts and tempts the characters as an almost incomprehensible promise. Some of them become real heroes, but others fail.
Tibor Szobotka's powerful and shocking novel teaches us that there is nothing more valuable than real, deep human relationships, that in the world of appearances, even if we feel at home, we can never be truly happy.