“So I was forced to steal the chickens […], which was first of all a shame, secondly a serious danger, but above all a necessity.”
There are many ways to try to tell a family story: in the first person looking at the past; as a secondary subject who sees the story pass before his eyes and grow with it; as an omniscient voice capable of entering into the emotions and feelings of the various characters and so on.
The one used by Zsuzsa Selyem in this one hundred and twenty page volume is perhaps one of the most interesting. Committed to collecting the memories of an almost centenarian István Beczásy, the points of view that tell facts and events of his life are multiple, and not always anthropomorphic. Surprisingly we find ourselves inside the thoughts of dogs, plants or insects that tell the way in which they came into contact with Beczásy, who for them perhaps had nothing different from other humans, but they offer us the possibility of looking at our protagonist from the outside, especially when in times of difficulty he found himself lacking words to want to share or to want to express.
Beczásy’s life spans the short century of Hungary and with it that of many Eastern European countries, which immediately after the difficulties of the Second World War, found themselves flooded with hope for the future, only to then risk dying thirsty for justice from the salty water of communism and Soviet interference in their daily lives.
Although the fantastic side of the story is very extensive, whether it is an animal or a man or another figure that tells the facts, what remains impressed are the perfect descriptions of human souls, all firmly anchored to the reality of History, which has a strong popular component that involves those like us who are not well acquainted with some passages of European historiography.
We did not know the author, and to be honest, in an approximate way the publishing house that brought this small text to Italy, which we liked very much. A book that should be made known to the large audience of less strong readers, because it allows you to transport yourself in time and space, as few other books are able to do.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Zsuzsa Selyem, Piove a Mosca, Del Vecchio Editore, Roma, 2025
Original edition: Moszkvában esik: egy kitelepítés története, Jelenkor Kiadó, Budapest, 2016