A guest in my own country

"When George Konrad was eleven, he, his sister, and two cousins fled to Budapest from the Hungarian countryside the day before deportations swept through his hometown. Ultimately, they were the only Jewish children of the town to survive the Holocaust." "A Guest in My Own Country recalls the life of one of Eastern Europe's most accomplished modern writers, beginning with his survival during the final months of World War II to the beginnings of a remarkable career in letters and politics. Offering descriptions of both his private and public life in Budapest, New York, and Berlin, Konrad reflects on his role in the Hungarian Uprising, the notion of "internal emigration" - the fate of many writers who, like Konrad, refused to leave the Eastern Bloc under socialism - and other complexities of European identity. To read A Guest in My Own Country is to experience the recent history of East-Central Europe from the inside."--BOOK JACKET.