Product Description

In 1944, Magda Denes was ten years old and living in Budapest with her mother, adored brother Ivan, grandparents, aunt and cousin Erwin. Hungarian Jews were finding their lives more and more desperate, Indiscriminately murdered, tortured and abused by the brutal occupying German forces, they were barricaded into underground ghettoes. Magda's grandfather died of starvation. Ivan and Erwin, both resistance fighters, were shot. Somehow the depleted family escaped, made their way to Spain, and then by boat to the free world - to America, and to a new life. This is an account of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, narrated from the view of a precociously brilliant child.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #845418 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Castles Burning is the story of Magda, a young Jewish girl in war-torn Budapest. The author, Magda Denes, wrote this memoir of her Holocaust experience in the strong, honest voice of her childhood self, leaving her memories unrefined by later acquired adult experience. Magda lived through unspeakable deprivation and horror, hidden from German soldiers and Hungarian Nazis, as she attempted to survive the insanity that engulfed her and her family. The Russian invasion and the withdrawal of the Germans did little to restore any sense of normalcy in Magda's life. After the war, Magda and her family still had to confront their losses and attempt to deal with the many ways they had been changed. For Magda, the loss of her childhood and the painful set of memories she carries burden her most, keeping her distant from her mother and father and preventing her from ever receiving the tenderness her weary soul desires. Denes's story takes her from Hungary to France, then Cuba and on to the United States, creating an incredible family story full of horrifying adventures, by turns both sad and comic. But the precious creation of this book is the unforgettable childhood of Magda, a gem forged under ungodly pressure.

Customer Reviews

I didn't want this book to end.
I didn't want to finish this book because I knew that the minute I did I would miss Magda Denes as much as if she and I were real friends and I could no longer be with her. In her writing she somehow managed to draw me, not only into the story she was telling, but into the very room, street, train station,or hiding place in which she and her family found themselves. This resulted in making it seem I was living Magda's story with her rather than just reading it. At no point did she give way to sentimentality, all the characters, including herself, were portrayed with sometimes shocking honesty. This book broke my heart and yet, because Magda Denes did not flinch from depicting the humour so often to be found in the most gruesome of situations, it is also a delight. In fact in places it caused me to laugh so much that I could not read on until I had composed myself. I am bitterly sorry that Magda Denes died before its publication, not only because I can not write and tell her how much her story touched me but also because it means there will be no more books from her.

Colourful and alternatively sad, humorous and thouroughly human classic
Magda Denes was five years old, in 1939, when her editor father abruptly abandoned his family, transferring all his assets to the United States.
The family was left with nothing.
Persecuted and then hunted, Magda was determined not to give way to despair (as she was taken around to different places of hiding and had to hide under floorboards, in an oven, and in a cellar) . She lost her brother Ivan, who was a rescuer for the Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair. The Zionists rescued many Jews from the Nazis, and were the backbone of Jewish resistance to Nazism.
What results is a colourful classic of the sruggle for life in dangerous and frightening days of death, written with wry humour and biting wit.
You will grow to understand, sympathize with and love Magda as you follow her story.
Today influential voices are calling for an end to the State of Israel (which was in many cases built by holocaust survivors), which would certainly lead to a second holocaust aginst the Jews living there.
It is up to us to prevent a second holocaust from occuring.
To prevent a situation where Jewish children will be murdered and hunted, by fully supporting Israel in her struggle to survive and fighting anti-Israel prejudice.

The sister I never had
Oh, I loved this book from the very first page. Magda manages to draw you in to her world from the minute you start reading. As I kept turning the pages I thought - aw...nearly finished and I wanted it to go on and on and on. Contrary to what I should be doing - crying - I had to laugh out loud on several occasions as Magda's writing style is with such childish humor. Still at most times though written with humor and the quintessential sarcasm, it is so sad to hear what she had to go through. Her story touched me deeply I'd loved to have her as a sister - the one I never had.
So sorry that 5 star is the highest - I give this book all the stars in the world!!!