Award-winning journalist Kati Marton set out on a wrenching personal journey to uncover the truth about her parents during her childhood in Cold War Budapest. She exposes the cruel mechanics of the communist state using the secret police files on her parents as well as dozens of interviews that reveal how her family was spied on and betrayed by friends, colleagues, and even their children's babysitter. She learned details of her parents' love affairs and the full nightmare of her parents' incarceration in a communist prison. Marton relates her own eyewitness account of her mother's and father's arrests and the terrible separation that followed. There were things she didn't want to know about and disappointments she didn't want to revisit. But as she dug deeper into their lives, she found the truth about her parents' lives—and her own.
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"This book opened my eyes to the suffering of people in Hungary before and after WWII. Kati Marton's Hungarian parents worked in Budapest as journalists for US before and after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. It is a spellbinding account of their imprisonment, separation, and eventual freedom."
— Trudi (4 out of 5 stars)
Powerful and unsparing.... I will never forget this book and neither will you.
— Sean Wilentz, author of the Bancroft Prize winner The Rise of American Democracy" This reads like fiction, but knowing it's true made it all the more impressive. Kati Marton is a wonderful writer and lets the story unfold. It's amazing how strong the parents were, refusing to be silenced. I can't imagine how she felt when she found her childhood drawings in the secret files! "
— Mary-Jean, 2/15/2014" Excellent follow-on to The Great Escape. A fascinating story of Marton's parents, who were Hungarian AP and UPI correspondents during the post-WWII era of communist occupation. Marton was married to Peter Jennings and is now married to Richard Holbrooke. "
— Tom, 2/12/2014" I loved the book mostly bec Kati Marton and I have so much background stuff in common (not to mention maiden names!). "
— Maria, 2/10/2014" I thought the book was written well and interesting, but it just wasn't very gripping. "
— Carol, 1/27/2014" Fascinating. This is the story of Kati Marton's childhood and her amazing parents, as told by the surveillance records of the Hungarian secret police during the cold war and by the FBI after they came to the US. "
— Damon, 1/22/2014" Marton provides a very interesting look into the workings of a totalitarianism that she can only glean through the personal narrative of her parents told through the impersonal records of a banally evil state. Wow. I can only imagine how strange and horrifying it was to read shopping carts' worth of information about her parents (and herself) dutifully recorded by spies and agents all using the official language, the official ideology, and the official narrative of Communist Hungary. "
— Miss, 1/11/2014" Cold Ward story about two Hungarian journalists and their daughters, how they were finally allowed to leave, and how author reconstructed their story from the files of the secret police. "
— Elisabeth, 12/6/2013" It was slow reading for me until about page 70. After that, fascinating story of cold war Hungary and what this family went through to survive. "
— Lori, 11/29/2013" What a wonderful and captivating book. This was a very insightful journey through what Hungarians went through during the Hungarian Revolution and I would highly recommend it. "
— Karczage, 11/23/2013" So, I have to put this down after reading about 60 pages...the writing was very dry and the writer's perspective appeared to shift. This due to my inability to concentrate on the story line, I'm not sure...but, nevertheless, I was not interested enough in the topic to put up with these downfalls. "
— Andrea, 11/7/2013" A very interesting story. The author learned (after her parents' deaths) the story of their imprisonment by the Hungarian secret police during the cold war in the 1950's. However, although the story was fascinating, the writing did not engage me at all. "
— marsha, 10/10/2013" A rather dry account of her parents being under surveillance and arrested. It seems like there is a good story here, but she just doesn't know how to tell it in an interesting way. I keep putting off continuing this book, so I'm going to give it up. "
— Sera, 6/30/2013" A lovely well-reported memoir. In contrast to all those clowns using the term 'socialist' so carelessly, this book gives a true picture of what life was like behind the Iron Curtain and all the cold war tension that came with that period. "
— John, 4/24/2012" Poignant view of life behind the iron curtain in 1950-60's Hungary. This girl is my age and I remember much of the Hungarian Revolution and its unhappy ending. I probably read her father's accounts never realizing who wrote them. "
— Debra, 6/18/2011" Let's just say I got through it, and be done with that. "
— Jodie, 4/29/2011" Although the story of her parents was interesting and inspiring, the author's writing wasn't that great which ruined it for me. "
— Tracie, 12/20/2010" A non-fiction book that reads like fiction--no surprise, as it exposes the surrealistic atmosphere of Hungary under a series of communist and capitalist regimes. "
— Christina, 10/12/2010" Fascinating. This is the story of Kati Marton's childhood and her amazing parents, as told by the surveillance records of the Hungarian secret police during the cold war and by the FBI after they came to the US. "
— Damon, 8/18/2010Kati Marton is the author of several acclaimed nonfiction books, including My Family’s Journey to America, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. She is an award-winning former NPR and ABC News correspondent.
Laural Merlington is an audiobook narrator with over two hundred titles to her credit and a winner of multiple Earphones Awards. An Audie Award nominee, she has also directed over one hundred audiobooks. She has performed and directed for thirty years in theaters throughout the country. In addition to her extensive theater and voice-over work, she teaches college in her home state of Michigan.