if you're looking for your next intense character study, then Magda Szabó has you covered with The Door! This book completely sucked me in to the turbulent inner lives of the main character, an author, and Emerence, her domestic servant. The Door flips all preconceived notions of power between employer and employee, as it's clear from the start that Emerence is in charge here. She interviews the author and her husband, she sets her wage, she shows up to clean at 3 in the morning if she has to. A formidable figure, Emerence is lauded in the neighbourhood as the go-to person if anyone needs help or is sick - except you don't go to her, she'll already be there. But Emerence, so present in the inner lives of others, has secrets of her own...

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I thought the book got off to an extremely strong start but then, whether it was down to my own reading state or the book, lost a bit of steam midway through. It's only 272 pages though, so I powered through and soon it was back to unputdownable. And I think it's quite a feat to make a book that's predominantly character-driven to be unputdownable. Emerence is like a force of nature that you can't look away from, and the relationship that develops between her and the narrator is utterly fascinating.

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Len Rix provides us with another exquisite translation - he also translated Katalin Street and he does a fine job there too! I don't think this book reads like it was published in the 80s, it feels very current. I also wondered how much of the novel was autobiographical, as the main author character has a lot in common with Szabó herself.

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Szabó also blesses us with Viola with this novel! Viola is an intelligent mongrel the narrator rescues, but Emerence becomes his true mistress (yes he is a he, you'll find out why Emerence named him Viola). However, some parts of their relationship were hard to read as an animal lover, and also I didn't think really fit in with Emerence's character and relationship with other animals in the book.