Everyone in Hungary knows Magda Szabó and her most famous youth novel, Abigail. The story is compulsory reading in school, there are films and musicals about it. However, we had to wait for the English translation until now. The English version of Abigail was published for the first time on January 20, 2020 by Len Rix, who translated Magda Szabó's other novel „The Door” and Antal Szerb's oeuvre to English.

The main character of the novel is Georgina "Gina" Vitay, a spoiled girl from Pest, the daughter of a general. In 1943, her father sends her away to the Matula Institute, a rural Protestant girls' boarding school, without an explanation. The closed Puritan world of Matula forces Gina, who is used to wealth and freedom, to give up many things in her life. She has to cut off the connection between herself and the outside world. The strict rules, the busy schedule, the unornamented, monotone environment are far from her previous easy life. She feels lonely in this environment and tries to escape...

As the English translation is out, even New York Times recommends Magda Szabó and Abigail:

“Originally published in 1970, “Abigail” is Szabo’s most popular book in her native Hungary, where it has been adapted into both TV series and a musical — and where it is even more widely read than “The Door,” the 1987 novel that may be her best-known work outside her country. The English edition of “Abigail” is as welcome as it is overdue. Len Rix’s translation is deft, but Szabo’s frank, conversational prose takes a back seat to her sinuous plotting: The novel unspools its secrets over many pages, and the resulting tour de force is taut with suspense.”