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" The Dog adopted the Ancsas in the spring of '48 - so the story begins. The Ancsas are a middle-aged couple living on the outskirts of Budapest in a ruinous Hungary that is just beginning to wake up from the nightmare of World War II. The new Communist government promises to set things straight, and Mr. Ancsa, an engineer, is as eager to get to work building the future as he is to forget the past. The last thing he has time for is a little mongrel bitch, pregnant with her first litter. But Niki knows better, and before long she is part of the Ancsa household. The Ancsas even take her along with them when Mr. Ancsa's new job requires a move to an apartment in the city. Then Mr. Ancsa is swept up in a political crackdown disappearing without a trace. For five years he does not return, five years of absence, silence, fear, and the constant struggle to survive ?ve years during which Mrs. Ancsa and Niki have only each other. The story of Niki, an ordinary dog, and the Ancsas, a no less ordinary couple, is an extraordinarily touching, utterly unsentimental, parable about caring, kindness, and the endurance of love."… (more)
"Los Ancsa son una pareja madura que reside a las afueras de Budapest, en una Hungría arruinada que despierta de la pesadilla de la segunda guerra mundial. El nuevo gobierno comunista promete poner todo en orden, y el señor Ancsa, un modesto ingeniero, desea comenzar a trabajar en la construcción del futuro de su país para poder así olvidar el pasado. Este proyecto lo mantiene tan ocupado que parece no tener tiempo para cuidar de Niki, que se encuentra a punto de parir su primera camada. Pasado poco tiempo, los Ancsa deben mudarse a la ciudad y llevan consigo a Niki. Un día el señor Ancsa desaparece sin dejar rastro a causa de la represión política, y durante cinco años Niki y la señora Ancsa sólo se tendrán a sí mismas para hacerse compañía frente a la ausencia, el miedo, y el constante desafío para sobrevivir. La historia de Niki, una perra común y corriente, y la de los Ancsa, una pareja no menos común, es una parábola extraordinaria, conmovedora sobre el cariño y la fuerza del amor". (Descripción editorial).
Moving, intelligent, artful. That's all I ask for in a book, and this modest little book delivers, marred only by some gently outdated attitudes. The descriptions of a dog's experience of life are insightful and wise, and the way peripheral way it addresses life in the age of the gulag is subtle, powerful. It has none of the heaviness of Solzhenitsyn but is somehow just weighty enough. Niki is just an ordinary dog - an every-dog - but we love her all the more for that. What a writer. I'll be checking out more of Dery's work and that of his contemporary, Sandor Marai. ( )
The earliest dog story I've ever read, a la Marley and Me -- though I doubt it was THE first, I expect this genre is very old. This one is set against the backdrop of 1950s Communist Hungary -- the spectre of which grows ever more menacing as the story progresses. This book turned out to be a lot more interesting and thought-provoking than I thought it would be, and unlike most dog stories it's quite matter-of-fact and not at all sentimental. A person could read it for the "life in Communist Europe" aspect alone as well as for the dog part. ( )
[. . .] from the first, from the very outset of this happy age, Nerva has united things long incompatible, Empire and liberty; Trajan is increasing daily the happiness of the time; and public confidence has not merely learned to hope and pray, but has received security for the fulfilment of its prayers and even the substance thereof. Though it is true that from the nature of human frailty cure operates more slowly than disease, and as the body itself is slow to grow and quick to decay, so also it is easier to damp men's spirits and their enthusiasm than to receive them [. . .] For the term of fifteen years, a large space in human life, chance and change have been cutting off many among us; others, and the most energetic, have perished by the Emperor's ferocity."— Tacitus, The Life of Julius Agricola
Dedication
First words
The dog—we will not yet give it a name—adopted the Ancsas in the spring of 1948.
Quotations
Last words
Having no photograph to keep her in mind of the terrier's short life, Mrs Ancsa decided that, by way of a souvenir, she would keep a stone which she had recently found under the carpet.
" The Dog adopted the Ancsas in the spring of '48 - so the story begins. The Ancsas are a middle-aged couple living on the outskirts of Budapest in a ruinous Hungary that is just beginning to wake up from the nightmare of World War II. The new Communist government promises to set things straight, and Mr. Ancsa, an engineer, is as eager to get to work building the future as he is to forget the past. The last thing he has time for is a little mongrel bitch, pregnant with her first litter. But Niki knows better, and before long she is part of the Ancsa household. The Ancsas even take her along with them when Mr. Ancsa's new job requires a move to an apartment in the city. Then Mr. Ancsa is swept up in a political crackdown disappearing without a trace. For five years he does not return, five years of absence, silence, fear, and the constant struggle to survive ?ve years during which Mrs. Ancsa and Niki have only each other. The story of Niki, an ordinary dog, and the Ancsas, a no less ordinary couple, is an extraordinarily touching, utterly unsentimental, parable about caring, kindness, and the endurance of love."
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Wikipedia in English
1
Un día el señor Ancsa desaparece sin dejar rastro a causa de la represión política, y durante cinco años Niki y la señora Ancsa sólo se tendrán a sí mismas para hacerse compañía frente a la ausencia, el miedo, y el constante desafío para sobrevivir. La historia de Niki, una perra común y corriente, y la de los Ancsa, una pareja no menos común, es una parábola extraordinaria, conmovedora sobre el cariño y la fuerza del amor". (Descripción editorial).