This is a story about Emerence, an enigmatic Hungarian elderly woman, as told by the rarely named lady writer. It’s also a story of how the lady writer, the local cats, a crazy dog and the whole neighbourhood were affected by someone who turned out to be more than an illiterate cleaning woman.

There is not a lot of narrative in the novel and the ending of the story is more or less given away by the opening paragraphs. This novel is all about the mystery of the Character of Emerence and her motivations. It asks questions about love, friendship, and betrayal. It’s the kind of novel where at least one of these questions will stay with you. It’s needlessly sad, especially at the end but then again I guess so is life.

Overall it has stayed with me and I suppose that is great writing? I don’t pretend to be an expert on this however, it desires five stars for that at least. I would like to thank the Goodreads Ireland group for selecting this as their August read I never would have come across Szabo otherwise. I look forward to reading another translation of one of her novels.