Fever at Dawn

by Péter Gárdos

Paperback, 2017

Status

Available

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Description

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 P�ter G�rdos's parents.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member FictionZeal

It’s July 1945 and Miklos is seriously ill having just barely survived the Nazi camps during WWII. In a Swedish hospital, Dr. Lindholm said he has no more than six months to live; he has incurable Tuberculosis (TB). Impulsively, Miklos began seeking a wife. He wrote to Hungarian women in

hospitals and rehabilitation centers in Sweden — 117 letters in all. He had beautiful handwriting with “shapely letters” and “elegant loops.” Lili Reich was one of the few who took the time to respond. He tells his friend, “… she’s the one.” She was a patient at the Smalandsstenar rehabilitation hospital. After many letters, they finally agreed to meet. He traveled quite some distance. Lili had also suffered during the war and was left in a very frail state from the brutality she’d endured within a Nazi camp.

Peter Gardos is the author. He is also the son of Miklos and Lily. He tells this sweet romantic story from the letters exchanged between his parents – two people who survived the Holocaust. This book was originally written in Hungarian, so I’m not sure if it was due to translation issues, but the writing told in third person is broken periodically referencing ‘my father’. The story was charming, and of course based on reality, but I didn’t feel the author personified the emotional level I would have expected of their relationship. Rating: 3 out of 5.

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LibraryThing member Welsh_eileen2

An interesting concept, but not a story that kept me enthralled disappointingly.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Random House via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

LibraryThing member kcshankd

Quick little novel, a post-holocaust love story, based on contemporary letters, written by the resulting son. The story is blighted by 'holocaust porn', a page or two of no doubt true, but needless, descriptions by the son of what the parents must have experienced in the camps.

LibraryThing member froxgirl

A strange and humorous novel, like a Catch 22 of Jewish refugee life post concentration camp. Sweden has resettled a good number of camp survivors who are broken in all aspects. Tuberculosis leaves Miklos, a Yossarian type, with a year to live, but instead of retreating into despair, he obtains a

list and sends love letters to the 117 Hungarian women who are also recovering in Sweden. Miklos has good male companions and is pleased to share the women who correspond with him. All except Lili, whom he keeps for himself. There's something about her...

This is a true story of how the author's parents met. How fortunate that he found all of their letters after they died, and how lucky was Peter Gardos to have such funny, trusting souls arise from the wreckage of Europe and from their hideous memories to become his mother and father.

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