About the Author

Dr Thomas Kabdebo is the author of more than forty books, the translator of a further forty books, and has received numerous literary and other awards - including the Hungarian Order of Merit, the Peterfy Life Achievement Award, the Fust Grand Prix for translation, and the International Poetry Prize. Born in Budapest in 1934, he escaped to the West from his native Hungary after participation in the 1956 Revolution. He has lived in Britain (where he directed the University Library of Westminster), in Guyana (where he directed the University Library of Georgetown), and finally settled in Ireland, where he became Director of Maynooth University Library. He now lives in Newcastle, County Dublin. ' - As a youngster he lived through two regime changes in Hungary, plus an imprisonment, and a revolution, and the loss of his first home. - '[ - Arpad Goncz, President of Hungary 1990-2000]. ' - For some years, Thomas Kabdebo was familiar to many as the librarian at Maynooth College. That was a settled state of life compared with his earlier years as recounted in this autobiography.'[ - Peter Costello, THE IRISH CATHOLIC JOURNAL].

Reviews

' - he witnessed many traumatic historical episodes during his life and his account of his part in the Rising is gripping. His is one of those lives that serve as a European history lesson.'[ - BOOKS IRELAND, 2012]. -- ' - evokes the old settled life of the Hungary of his ancestors and parents, but for himself Hungary under the Communists after World War II took on a different aspect. Like so many of his contemporaries, he fled west after the collapse of the 1956 rising, leading for some years the life of a wandering intellectual before settling in Ireland, - this book provides vivid insights into the convulsions of recent Eastern European history, changes which many suspect may not yet be at an end.'[ - THE IRISH CATHOLIC JOURNAL]. -- ' - Kabdebo's first-hand experience of the often cruel reality of life in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II, and of the hardships (as well as the infinite possibilities) of life as a refugee, has been captured unforgettably in this compelling, deeply honest book.'[ - HUNGARIAN NEWS AGENCY (MTI)].