The Holocaust in Hungary

This story has haunted me my whole life and I am writing a novel inspired by a family anecdote. The events in my story occurred before my time. But I have tried to create a novel around these people, turned them into characters and given them lives. What the story says to me — and what I hope sets it apart from others on the subject — is that all of us — victims, perpetrators, Christians, Jews, saints and criminals alike — are capable of making mistakes with tragic consequences. — Joseph Kertes

Joseph Kertes and I have walked many of the same streets and have been haunted by similar stories. We were both born in Hungary, we were both post-war kids who came west after the 1956 Hungarian revolution, we have both become addicted to literature in Canada and we have both been influenced by some of this country’s best writers, including that iconoclastic and iconic poet Irving Layton. Kertes founded the...