A ‘dark domestic fairytale’ by Hungary’s most important twentieth-century writer.

Nothing is more mysterious than another human soul.

Magda is a writer, Emerence her housekeeper. Magda is new to their quiet Hungarian town, while Emerence, fierce and enigmatic, knows and is known by all. Though she enters Magda’s home whenever she pleases, the door to Emerence’s own strange abode remains barred. Still, somehow, over the course of twenty years, an intimate trust is built between the two, rich with secrets.

Yet when this trust is betrayed one dark afternoon, the pair’s complex relationship will be left forever altered, and Magda will find herself haunted until the end of her days. For not all doors are made to be opened.

‘A dark domestic fairy tale’ New York Times

Translated by Len Rix