Fever at Dawn

by Peter Gardos, Elizabeth Szasz (Translator)

Overview

In this improbably joyous novel about two recovering concentration camp survivors, love is the best medicine.

July 1945. Miklos is a twenty-five-year-old Hungarian who has survived the camps and has been brought to Sweden to convalesce. His doctor has just given him a death sentence — his lungs are filled with fluid and in six months he will be gone. But Miklos has other plans. He didn't survive the war only to drown from within, and so he wages war on his own fate. He acquires the names of the 117 Hungarian women also recovering in Sweden, and he writes a letter to each of them in his beautiful cursive hand. One of these women, he is sure, will become his wife. 
  
In another part of the country, Lili reads his letter and decides to write back. For the next few months, the two engage in a funny, absurd, hopeful epistolary dance. Eventually, they find a way to meet. 
  
Based on the true story of Péter Gárdos's parents, and drawn from their letters, Fever at Dawn is a vibrant, ribald, and unforgettable tale, showing the death-defying power of the human will to live and to love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544769793
Publisher:	HMH Books
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.98(d)

About the Author

PÉTER GÁRDOS is an award-winning Hungarian film director. Fever at Dawn, his first novel, is based on the true story of his parents and is being published in thirty countries. He lives in Budapest.

Editorial Reviews

2016-01-21
Two Holocaust survivors fall in love at a distance by writing letters to one another in this debut novel. World War II has just ended, and the concentration camps have been liberated. Miklos and Lili, both Hungarian Jews, both survivors of the Belsen camp, are taken separately to two rehabilitation hospitals in Sweden, where they each begin a long convalescence. Then Miklos is given a poor prognosis: his lungs have degenerated to such an extent that he can expect to live for only six more months. Miklos responds to the news by beginning a letter-writing campaign. After obtaining the names and addresses of all 117 Hungarian women convalescing in Sweden, Miklos writes a flirtatious letter to each one. A few write back, but it's Lili, a sweet and spirited girl, with whom Miklos develops a rich, and romantic, relationship. While their doctors hector them about their health, Miklos and Lili exchange letters, sweets, and kisses. Meanwhile, Miklos is in open rebellion at his own prognosis. This is the first novel by Gárdos, an award-winning film director in Hungary. In a note at the back of the book, Gárdos explains that the story is based on his own mother and father's courtship; the excerpts from Miklos' and Lili's letters in the book are the letters they exchanged in real life. Indeed, Miklos is often referred to by the narrator as "my father." It's a charming story, but as a novel, the work has the flattened quality of a children's book or a pantomime. It isn't just history, or even the plot, that's been flattened: it's also the characters' desires, motivations, and reasoning. All that charm crystallizes into something too precious, too cute. Nothing feels quite real: not the war, not Miklos' illness, not even the petty envy of one of Lili's friends. It reads like a fairy tale but with lowered stakes and a predictable ending. A novel about star-crossed lovers fails, in the end, to come fully to life.

Kirkus Reviews

Fever at Dawn has the sweetness of The Rosie Project and the pathos of The Fault in Our Stars. Better still, it is based on a true story, that of the author’s parents, who found love in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the horrors of World War II . . . Verdict: a book to fall in love with.” —Herald Sun
 
“On the surface Fever at Dawn may seem a harrowing tale of survival and suffering, but in this remarkable book the Holocaust merely provides the backdrop for the most improbable of true-life love stories . . . There is a timeless quality to Fever at Dawn, a kind of classical romanticism . . . Gardos’s fascinating novel is sure to become a staple in book clubs.” —Australian
 
“Will make you like life more when you’ve finished.” —Bookseller
 
“A riveting and high-spirited journey from the brink of death toward life, a novel that asserts the power of love in a world newly devastated by unspeakable hate. With courage, humor, and unfailing emotional honesty, Peter Gardos illuminates the incredible power of the human will—the drive not just to stay alive, but to fight for a life worth celebrating.” —Julie Orringer, author of The Invisible Bridge
 
“Fever at Dawn belongs to the canon of extraordinary true stories about love and war and the power of letters. Dramatic, compassionate, and deeply moving, this unforgettable story reminds us that the Holocaust is not only history, it’s a warning.” —Jennifer Clement, author of Prayers for the Stolen
 
“The impossibly moving story of two damaged youths who forge from their amour fou a love that will light the decades ahead. With playfulness and charm, with iron conviction, Fever at Dawn will convince you that it’s possible not only to survive the worst of human hell, but to transcend it.” —Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name
 
“Books don’t make me cry. Fever at Dawn did. Drawing you in with pathos and playful wit, it squeezes the heart with sorrow and leaves it expanded with joy and love.” —Gabor Maté M.D., author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
 
“A magnificent novel, tonally flawless, its humor defiant in the face of vast tragedy.” —Joan London, author of Gilgamesh and The Good Parent

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