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The Dispossessed is Szilárd Borbély’s first novel, although he has been active – and widely acclaimed – as a poet, literary historian and essayist for more than twenty years Its first print run sold out almost immediately To state that the book has touched a raw nerve in today’s Hungary is something of an understatement; nonetheless, Borbély’s portrayal of growing up in the country’s rural northeast during the beginning of the Kádár era (1956-1988) haunts the reader for its unsparing truthfulness and attention to small details The novel’s narrator is a child – possibly Jewish, although he himself is uncertain about it – who registers and remembers colours, scents and sounds from the unchanging brutal microcosm that is impoverished village life A historical note: The Arrow Cross was a fascist political organisation, allied with Nazi Germany, that held power in Hungary from 15 October 1944 to 28 March 1945 Under Ferenc Szálasi’s rule, the Arrow Cross oversaw the murder of approximately 200,000 Budapest Jews, as well as continuing the deportations of rural Jews to Auschwitz which had begun under the previous government of Admiral Miklós Horthy Béla Kun was a Communist revolutionary and leader of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919 Overthrown by Admiral Horthy, Kun fled to the Soviet Union, where he was killed in Stalin’s purges —OM   —   When Mózsi came back from the forced labour camp, he no longer looked like a Jew He was just like anyone else He came back like the other refugees who were looking for their homes, their belongings, the families left behind here Like everyone else who could not stop living He lugged the burden that was life He was bald, and he wore a threadbare soldier’s uniform His luxuriant hair of old, his curled ear locks, were nowhere to be seen No longer did he wear his black caftan Nor his hat Nor his white shirt Never again the mourning-shirt fringed at the corners, which the men had always worn In the village, nobody talked about what had happened to these clothes Mózsi too did not ask