"Paul Sohar, the excellent translator of Sándor Kányádi's verse and an American poet in his own right, has translated an impressive selection of poems from György Faludy, a veritable icon of modern Hungarian literature. Culling from major tent poles in Faludy's life, the volume presents a sampling of the poet's early work, his first exile, his return to post-war Hungary, his second exile, and his late poems. For a prolific poet like Faludy, whose work spans from the 1930s right through the new millennium, this oeuvre is a daunting challenge to any translator both in the selection process and in the rendition into contemporary American English.

As a political prisoner who resisted the violent spasms inherent in the "isms" of ideology, the individualist in Faludy became not only a cause célèbre who defied all forms of tyranny, but also the quintessential poet..."

--Peter Hargitai, Florida International University.

"György Faludy arrives bearing a truth that burns deep in our bones–that mankind is not benign, that suffering is meaningless, and that love, like death, is inevitable. He might be speaking of his own poetry when he writes, 'this land can be frighteningly cruel / but its plain face cannot tell a lie.'"

--Yves Sorotobi, editor and publisher, TheWriteDeal Press

Born in 1910, György Faludy lived through almost all of twentieth century and witnessed many of its major events. In the 1930s he was already an established poet in Hungary, but at the advent of WW II he had to escape Budapest because of his Jewish origin and socialist politics. Traveling through France and North Africa he eventually ended up in the United States where he joined the Army and served in the Pacific. After the war he spurned the offer of US citizenship and went back to liberated Hungary; an ardent socialist, he was eager to help build a new, democratic country on the rubble of the War. But soon the Stalinist regime arrested him as an American spy and kept him at the infamous Recsk forced labor camp until Stalin's death in 1953 when the camp was dismantled. During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution he fled the country again and started a new life of exile, first in England and then in Canada until the collapse of Communism in 1989, when he was finally able to go back to Hungary, where he was showered with prizes. He continued to write and give public readings till he died in September 2006. The New York Times observed his passing in an obituary. His poetry remains as contemporary and relevant as ever.

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