Refugee From Paradise

About the Book

Refugee from Paradise is a fictional diary of a Hungarian refugee girl living in England after World War II. Her "Paradise" is the beautiful memory of her childhood in Hungary, in stark contrast to the nightmare the communist regime calls "the workers' paradise." Penny Kiss relishes her new life in school and college, but news about her family left behind in Hungary torment her. Her mother and her new stepfather warn her daily about secret communist infiltrators in England, who could hurt her father in Hungary. Suspicious of strangers, Penny has an encounter with Andrew, a mysterious young man who takes an interest in her. But how can she make friends in a world where she can't trust anyone?

About the Author

Dalma Takács was born in Hungary and has lived through World War II as a child. She left Hungary at the age of 14 and spent her young adulthood in England watching the ravages of the communist system on her country and her family from a distance. Throughout her career in England and the US as teacher of English, librarian, college teacher, and writer, her Hungarian background has been her firm foundation. She has edited Clear the Line: Hungary's Struggle to Leave the Axis in the Second World War, a historical memoir by her mother, Laura-Louise Veress. She is the author of Meet Me at the Globe, a novel of Shakespeare's England; Our Story: Saga of a Hungarian-American Family; and The Condo, Or...Life, a Sequel, a visit to a parallel universe.