TOWARDS THE LIGHT, Eva Henn : The Szpinner

Towards the Light
by Eva Henn

Eva Henn hits all the emotional notes with her debut book: suspense, fear, adversity and horror. Above all those, the emotion that is the foundation of her book is love, love of family, sibling love and love of nation.

The memoir is the story of her family’s escape from Hungary during the time of its mid-20th century revolution and Communist take-over. The story unfolds at her home in Buda where Hungarians are suffering the ravages of the infamous revolution of 1956. Nine-year-old Eva and her younger sister, Judy, do not understand what is happening but they can sense that whatever it is, it definitely is something to dread. Tanks, soldiers in camouflage garb, machine-gun fire, rocket and grenade explosions, all taking place in the streets just beyond the family home.

In aching detail, Eva describes how her parents became the family’s saviours ultimately bringing them to the safety and security of Austria after a terror-filled journey crossing minefields, fording icy waters of a Hungarian winter and evading Soviet and Hungarian border guards looking for refugees trying to escape this revolution.

The saddest thread that weaves its emotional descent through the story is the psychological and emotional decline of her young sister. Judy seemed to become increasingly distraught with every step that took her further and further from her grandparents, her family home and the life in which she felt safe and secure. Eva believes Judy’s mental and emotional degeneration might be diagnosed today as PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder. Her emotional trauma worsened, leading to anorexia nervosa and ultimately to her premature death.

Eva tempers her sad recollection with descriptions of her mother’s endurance and determination at keeping the family going and her father’s courage and perseverance in achieving his goal for his family, their immigration to a country where they could live good lives in safety and security. Her parent’s goals were fulfilled when they reached Canada in 1957.

A short read, Towards the Light, delivers a heart-wrenching story of endurance and family love written by an author who pays great respect to the memory of her parents, her sister and her native roots but balances all that with her honour and commitment to her new homeland, Canada.