English
FrançaisI am Fifteen and I do not Want to Die
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This strange compelling autobiography of a young girl caught by the tides of marching armies in the siege of Budapest in 1945 has already made a considerable impact on the French reading public. Christine Arnothy tells with the objectivity of a born novelist of the terrible experiences encountered by the refugees of Budapest, living in cellars, venturing out only when the noise of battle momentarily recedes, wondering all the time whether it will be the Germans or the Russians who will be the conquerors and under which of the two they will fare best. The writer's subsequent adventures which culminate in a dramatic escape over the frontier into Austria and freedom (or so she had imagined) is told with the same calm compulsive force. This young writer's first book is a literary tour de force. |
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© William Collins Sons and Co et Christine Arnothy
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The Daily Express, 25 février 1956 "For this ugly story is made beautiful by Christine's love of life : her enjoyment of humanity. What a triumph to live through such horror and to make it a resounding success." The Sunday Times, 26 février 1956 "A moving book… First-class reportage… Heartrending as well as exciting." Daily Mail, Londres, 1er mars 1956 "A moving and absorbing book." Scotsman, 1er mars 1956 "Small as it is in bulk, the narrative is disproportionately frightening yet reassuring in its portrayal of man's inhumanity and nobility." Birmingham Post, 6 mars 1956 "Of all the books that have told of war upon the innocent this I find the most searing in its effect. Christine Arnothy is a writer of power and compassion." Manchester Evening News, 7 mars 1956 "The most impressive book of the week… Written objectively yet with remarkable imaginative intensity… A book like this tells us more about the realities of war than a dozen accounts of battles won and lost." The Times, 15 mars 1956 "Miss Arnothy is an artist, which helped to keep her alive when she was 15 and helps also to make her book outstanding in the literature of war. This is the diary - tender, bleak, economical - of a siege and a flight… This is a terrible book. It has the abruptness, shadows and tensions of the best films, but superimposed is the knowledge that the cruelty and destruction are true. These things can happen. If Miss Arnothy's account is credible, yet not intolerable, this is in part due to her instinctive skill as a writer, and in part to the sudden flashes of humanity which light up the terror." |
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© Christine Arnothy
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