The Spoon: The Story of Two Families' Survival of the Hungarian Revolution

by Lisa Voelker, Heidi Jensen (Editor)

Overview

The Spoon is based on a true story. This novel is as much a story as it is a historical account. This is a universal story of the struggle for freedom, of survival and loss, and of a single, small spoon that, with time, came to symbolize a family's will to survive. 

Based on haunting memoirs of survivors, this story begins as a family gathers for Christmas. What began as a peaceful protest turned into a revolution when a single shot rang out. Hungarians, suffering and impoverished under Soviet rule living behind the post WWII Iron Curtain, risk everything when they take to the streets of Budapest to demonstrate against living conditions. Follow the journey of two families, unexpectedly united, their lives changed forever, thrown together in the maelstrom of the student protest which quickly devolved into what we now know today as the 1956 Hungarian Revolution when a single shot rang out. The Spoon is the timeless story of the struggle for freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798986572727
Publisher:	Lisa Owczarzak Voelker
Publication date:	11/11/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	430
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Lisa Voelker was born and raised in the small seaside village of La Jolla, California. Many of her childhood summers were spent with her grandparents in rural New England where Lisa's mother, a teacher, fostered a life-long love of history in her daughter. Throughout her life, Lisa has gathered stories from strangers, friends, and family; stories hidden away in memory and in journals, letters, and notebooks tucked away in bookshelves, drawers, basements, and attics. Occasionally, a truly remarkable story is brought to light. Such a story is the basis of Lisa's first novel, The Spoon.Lisa lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest residing on the central coast where the rainforest is shrouded in the morning mists of the Pacific Ocean.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Cast Of Characters

1. Grandfather

2. Rebeka

3. Kisberers

4. Megyer

5. Resettlement

6. The Farm

7. Béla And Klari

8. The Turea Family

9. The Awakening

10. Péter

11. Flashpoint

12. Student Demonstration | 23 October 1956

13. The March

14. Kossuth Square

15. Hero Square

16. Budapest

17. The Radio Station

18. Night

19. A Common Cause

20. Dawn | 24 October 1956

21. The Rising

22. The Bunker

23. Street Fighting

24. Morning

25. The Aftermath | 25 October 1956

26. Turmoil | 26-31 October 1956

27. Revelation | 26 October 1956

28. Balance-Counterbalance | 27 October 1956

29. Prison

30. Hope and Despair

31. Home

32. Tempest

33. November

34. Betrayal | 4 November 1956

35. Bloody Sunday

36. Iron Fist

37. Flight

38. The Refugees

39. Austria . .

40. Registration . .

41. Operation Safe Haven-Operation Mercy

42. Rites Of Passage .

43. A Distant Shore

44. Camp Kilmer

45. Processing and Resettlement

46. Beginnings

47. 1998

48. Christmas Eve

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Wonderful debut book. Not only completely readable but very informative and current, pertinent to our current geopolitical predicament. Compelling, I couldn't put it down." S. Garvery-Moran

"This was a very well researched book and was evocative in that it brought to mind stories of my mother's life during the war years in Czechoslovakia. Ms Voelker uses language beautifully to take the reader to the various places the characters went, and to get to know them each personally. Very well done." E. Yuen

" Her extensive research gave the reader the sense of being there with the characters. The book is relevant today, due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine." P. Brollier

"Fantastic!!! I'm a historical fiction buff...I loved how the book ended. Peter was an amazing character. " S. Latus

"The Spoon is a 5-star historical novel about a time in the 1950s that I'm embarrassed to admit I had never heard of...The Spoon was very educational and engaging...a fabulous storyteller." D. Thirkell

"Author Lisa Voelker did extensive research, and wrote as if she was actually there, partaking in the revolution, experiencing all of the turmoil, heartache and drama. Hungarians who still remember what happened then, will be amazed by the historical accuracy of her writing. The author masterfully sets the stage. " John Doe, 1956 Hungarian refugee and character subject of The Spoon

"A well-researched historical account and an emotional journey." James J

"I thought I knew everything about the turmoil that the Soviets inflicted on Eastern European countries. No. Educational, engaging, enthralling, "The Spoon" captures the reader with the personal stories of real people caught up in this turbulent time in history." Martin Marsh

"An Opus Grandis. This is not a book for everyone...meticulous exactitude of the historical background with which she covers the happenings of those times; A touch of pure genius; you the reader, with her characters, live in the reality they live, ever poignant, sometimes rejoicing, sometimes heart rending, in the end, Prevailing; upheld by a faith in something grand, something noble, something where love is still to be found, something bigger than themselves." J. Unger

"This book was a very emotional read for me. My parents were political prisoners (in Hungary). I so wish they were still alive so they could have read it too." L. Farcas

From the Publisher