The Door

Magda Szabó · 1917–2007 · Hungary

Originally Az Ajtó (Hungarian) · translated by Len Rix

Why it matters

A writer's decades-long relationship with her fiercely private, mysterious housekeeper becomes a study of intimacy, control, and the limits of ever truly knowing another person. Szabó's late masterpiece.

At a glance

A retrospective first-person narrative whose tension lies in withheld information, not syntax.